TOUR 



THROUGH PARTS OF 



THE UNITED STATES 



AND 



CANADA. 



JVMKS WlllriNf:, rRINTKll, IlKAIIimT llOlSr, STUANP. 



TOUR 



THROUGH PARTS OF 



THE UNITED STATES 



AND 



CANADA. 



BY A BRITISH SUBJECT. 




LONDON : 
LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, 

PATERNOSTER ROW. 



1828. 



.037 



PREFACE. 

As the contents of the following Letters, 
relate to a portion of the world not very 
frequently visited by British Travellers, it 
has been thought that the novelty of the 
subject may perhaps compensate for the 
deficiencies of the style ; and if my endea- 
vours to do justice to the many estimable 
qualities of the American citizens, or the 
assertion that their prosperity is a source 
of just pride to the Mother Country, shall 
tend to strengthen those bonds of mu- 
tual good-will between the two Nations, 
which are rapidly succeeding the ani- 
mosities of the revolutionary struggle ; I 
shall consider my late excursion has been 
useful, as well as highly agreeable. 

THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER I. 



Voyage — Entrance of the Hurlson' — Quarantine Regulations — 
Custom-House Annoyances — Restrictions on Aliens • . . .page 1 

LETTER IL ^ 

New York — Sliip-Building — Inhabitants and Customs — Good 
Feeling towards Britain — Descendants of Dutch — Irish Residents 
— Paper Money , . . 10 

LETTER in. 

Steam-Boats — Public Coaches — Philadelphia — Baltimore — Hotels 
and Mode of Living — Washington City — Slaves — the Consti. 
tution 21 

LETTER IV. 

Hudson River — Passengers in Steam-Boats — -Albany — Cohoes 
Falls — Erie Canal — Mohawk River — Utica — Roads — Trenton 
Falls — Value of Land — Produce and Labour 41 

LETTER V. 

Indians — Meals when Travelling — Discipline of Jails— Lakes — 
Freemasons — Rochester — Dwellings — Law of Inheritance — 
Falls of the Genesee River , 57 

LETTER VI. 

Ridgeway — Settlers in the Wilderness — Lewlston — Buffalo— 'Lake 
Erie — Ohio — Yankees — Mr. Owen's Settlement — Complaints of 
Agriculturists — Laws — Little Cheerfulness 78 



VIU CONTENTS. 

LETTER VII. 

Falls of Niagara — Tumulus of Skeletons — Late War — Anecdotes- 
Indian Warfare 96 

LETTER VIIL 

Niagara Town — York — Lake Ontario — Kingston — Rapids of St. 
Lawrence — -Error in fixing Boundaries — Causes of Discontent in 
Upper Canada — Montreal — River Richelieu — French Canadians 
— Constitution of Canada 108 

LETTER IX. 

Lake Champlain — Irish Emigrants — Plattsburg — Sir G. Prevost — 
Lake George — Massacre by the French in 1767 — Saratoga — Re- 
flections — Class of Emigrants who succeed best 126 



A TOUR 



THE UNITED STATES. 



LETTER I. 

VOYAGE— ENTRANCE OF THE HUDSON — QUARANTINE REGULA- 
TIONS — CUSTOM-HOUSE ANNOYANCES — RESTRICTIONS ON 
ALIENS. 

New York, April 30, 1827. 
DEAR , 

Rambling as have been my habits, I really felt 
at some loss, when selecting the American packet 
to convey me across the Atlantic. They are all 
in truth such fine vessels, varying in size from 350 
to 500 tons, and with such excellent accommoda- 
tions for eating and sleeping, that a less fastidious 
man than myself might well be puzzled : I fixed 
however finally on the port of Liverpool, in pre- 
ference to those of Havre and Cowes; and we 
embarked — a motley crew of passengers. 

Each dormitory arranged round the *^ salon 

B 



a manger" has two births in it! It is a kind of 
latticed box, with just sufficient room to stand 
and wash between the beds and the door ; and 
I was especially careful to seize on the upper 
coffin for my resting-place, because, in case of 
sea-sickness, the cascade is sometimes impelled 
by the rolling of the ship over the face of the 
unlucky sleeper below. 

At first, what a lovely deep blue the unfathom- 
able waters of the great ocean assume; but very 
speedily the charming monotony of sea and air, 
and air and sea, begins to grow tedious. Eyes 
are strained round the horizon for a new object; 
and some even brave the dangers of fines and 
falls, by cautiously creeping up the shrouds and 
through lubbei^'s-hole, to enjoy a better look-out. 
Shouts of *' A sail— a sail,^' then cause even the 
miserable vomiters to rush on deck, with cries of 
^^ Where — where?" Alas ! it is only a Portuguese 
man-of-war; a sort of small animated blubber, 
which raises or lowers at will its pale lilac-coloured 
bladder to the winds. 

Four times a-day did the well-covered table of 
this packet groan under a variety of dishes, con- 
taining flesh, fowl, and pastry; and as often 
did the majority of those with weak stomachs 
quit their lairs for the feast. The sea air, tliey 
said, gave them an appetite ; and well it might, 
for they had all the pleasure of mastication with- 



3 

out the trouble of digestion. How I pity Helio- 
gabalus, for not having tried the pleasurable 
sensations of a sea voyage ! If he could have seen 
the delight with which some of my companions 
gorged the good things,, and quaffed the wines and 
other beverages they perhaps were not always in 
the habit of regaling on^ he must have envied their 
capabilities, and lauded their ardour : yet strange 
as it may seem to you, I did not observe, at the 
end of the voyage, much difference in the bulk of 
my jovial acquaintances; their faces were plumper, 
and their swallows distended their cravats a little, 
which were all the ill effects, as far as they were 
concerned, ofeating out the value of their thirty-five 
guineas' passage-money, in about as many days. 

How many laughable accidents I could tell 
you, caused at our meals by a sudden lurch of 
the vessel ! One good-tempered little man in 
particular, who was all back, except t^vo little 
dangling apologies for legs, was always meeting 
with some mischance or another ; not only more 
than his fair proportion of tureens of soup, 
sauces, puddings and joints of meat, were pre- 
cipitated in his face and lap, but, as his feet 
could not reach the boards, he continually slipt 
from his seat under the table, disappearing in a 
manner at once the most extraordinary and 
ridiculous. 

We at length adopted the plan, in rough 



weather, of passing a handkercliief under his 
arms, and tying him to the back of the bench. 

The New York packets have generally an ex- 
perienced captain and mate^ with a well-behaved 
crew of sixteen or twenty individuals ; and I be- 
lieve it is a well-known fact, that the discipline on 
board all the American vessels, whether for war or 
commerce, is carried to greater lengths than with 
us. But notwithstanding this, the Sundays are 
not marked either by prayers or the clean holiday 
dresses of the sailors ; which, in both respects, 
must be considered a deviation from wholesome 
regulations. 

I was told, on remarking the neglect, that the 
men, however submissive in respect to details of 
duty, would mutiny at such tyrannical orders as 
related to dress, or shaving, or praying ; and I 
could only smile at the strange inconsistency of 
our nature. 

Landsmen are astonished at seeing so few fish 
in so long a voyage ; for, except a shoal of por- 
poises now and then, or the still scarcer dolphin 
sporting its vivid and ever-changing hues in the 
wake of the ship, the ocean appears void of 
other inhabitants than the myriads of sparkling 
animalcula, which, on a dark night, make the 
foam around resemble licpiid fire. 

The joyful tidings of land a-head were at last 
heard; and soon afterwards we regaled our 



sight with looking- on a low_, sandy, and not very 
pleasing shore, having a light-house placed op- 
posite to a dangerous hidden shoal that stretches 
to Long Island, and leaves the entrance to the 
harbour " pretty considerably" narrow. 

Sailing now due north for a few miles, the 
prospect began to brighten. A small ridge has 
been burst asunder by the torrents of the river 
Hudson, forming what are called " The Narrows ;" 
a passage about half a mile wide, and well fur- 
nished with formidable batteries on either side, 
besides the immense red brick fort of La Fayette, 
standing at some distance in the Channel. 

It seems to me, that this approach to the city 
of New York is far more expensively fortified than 
necessity demanded : for if an enemy really 
determined to attack this emporium of American 
commerce, I presume a force would be landed 
at the back of Long Island, and marching across 
that short space, fall at once on the naval arsenal, 
and thence pass over to the town, or rattle the 
houses about the ears of the inhabitants. 

Few views can be more cheerful and magnifi- 
cent than the one which I enjoyed on passing the 
Narrows. It wanted nothing but a back-ground 
of mountains to make it unrivalled. 

The morning was bright and lovely ; the 
country on both shores liighly cultivated, and 
though rarely exceeding a hundred feet in eleva- 



tion, is broken by gentle undulations in a very 
pleasing- manner. Neat and comfortable-look- 
ing houses, quite in the English style, are dotted 
about, amidst gardens and orchards, shady 
groves, fields, and hedge-rows. The same indus- 
try and national habits met my eye on every side ; 
and I was forced to remark that most of the 
houses were built of planks nicely painted, and 
that the vast natural harbour formed by the 
expanded waters of the Hudson, was on a 
grander scale than usual in Britain, before I quite 
recollected I was a foreigner. 

To the left, on Staten Island, is a rapidly in- 
creasing town, and several spacious public build- 
ings for hospitals. This is the quarantine ground 
for the state of New York ; and its regulations, 
as explained to me, were not only very incon- 
sistent, but taught me the practical truth — that 
every species of government has its disadvantages. 

Vessels arriving from South America, or those 
places where contagious fevers are prevalent, 
here come to anchor. The crew and passengers 
are visited by medical men of ability, and de- 
tained on board a certain number of days ; but 
those who take oath of intending to pass into Penn- 
sylvania or other states, are permitted to cross 
the island, and get on board any one of the 
steam-boats plyuig to Philadelphia or elsewhere. 

It is evident, that the most malignant plague 



t 

might thus be disseminated throughout the Union ; 
but on the other hand, said my friendly informer, 
" what right can the state of New York have to 
regulate by her laws the internal communica: 
tions of the federation?" 

At no other custom-house in the world does 
a stranger meet with so much civility and so 
many inconveniences as at that of New York. 
The officer who boards the vessel is neither 
drunken, insolent, nor taken from the lowest orders 
of society ; but receiving from ten to twelve 
shillings a-day throughout the year, is respect- 
able from Ills situation, and rigidly faithful to his 
government. Any attempt to bribe one of these 
individuals would be resented as an insult, and 
a personal quarrel would probably be the least 
evil attending it. 

But commerce not being properly represented 
in Congress, and the duties at sea-ports being 
almost the only source of revenue to tlie fede- 
rative government at Washington, several an- 
noying, and the merchants declare, very inef- 
ficient, orders have been given. 

The highly respectable firm to which I was 
recommended, kindly sent a gentleman with 
me, well acquainted with all the forms required ; 
and I was handed about from desk No. 1, to that 
of 5, in the corner, thence to office 2, and thus 
under the scrutiny of seven or eight difi'erent 



8 

checks on each other's conduct. One begged me 
to write a list of my boxes and their contents ; to 
another I paid some trifling fees ; and to a third 
I made oath my list of baggage was correct : 
when this latter gentleman, in the politest manner 
possible, gave me leave, not to bring my boxes 
on shore, but to go and have them examined by 
the officer on board the vessel. 

'^ But my oath, sir ! is not that sufficient to save 
me further trouble ?" said I, rather piqued at 
being, as I thought, treated like a smuggler. 
'^ Indeed," replied the civil man at the desk, " I 
really am sorry you should have so much trouble ; 
but the oath is only taken as a matter of course, 
and because sometimes small dutiable articles 
are thus revealed which might otherwise escape 
the searchers." 

Two of my trunks being filled with books and 
other articles liable to the customs, 1 was desired 
to value them as high as I possibly could; because, 
if the duty amounted to above fifty dollars, I 
should only have to pay a per centage on that sum ; 
but if only to 49 J dollars, then the whole would 
be demanded. My goods being rather expensive 
I got off for 3J dollars; but had I been less able 
to afford the money, I should by the present 
sysfem, have been much more hardly dealt with. 

This regulation in the land of fhe emigrant 
and the destitute, the home for the poor and the 



persecuted of all other nations, struck me as 
very incongruous ; but a citizen shortly after 
explained, " that the people of the United States 
were far too wise to be willing to make their 
country a general alms-house for Europe. A 
general work-house their philanthropy taught 
them to make it ; but for those only who would 
work, not for the idlers or beggars who come 
to live comfortably on the industry of others." 

" To prevent this," continued he, " each 
captain who brings emigrants is obliged to enter 
into securities with the authorities, that none 
shall be chargeable to the community for a cer- 
tain length of time ; and I suppose there being 
no drawback allowed on duties below fifty dol- 
lars, is a part of the same system.'^ This is, in 
fact, an alien bill, under another name ! 

There are several good hotels at New York ; 
but as I intended remaining some time, 1 was 
recommended to go to one of the numerous pri- 
vate boarding-houses : and I fortunately fixed 
on one in which a small, but agreeable party is 
resident ; where 1 am now as much domesticated 
as the kindness of the elder ladies, and the good- 
humoured liveliness of their nieces, can make 
me. By no means a slight relief during the wet, 
cold, and changeable weather, of the present 
season on this side the Atlantic. 

I remain, &c. 



«) 



LETTER II. 



NEW YORK — SHIP-BUILDING — INHABITANTS AND CUSTOMS — 
GOOD FEELING TOWARDS BRITAIN — DESCENDANTS OF DUTCH — 
IRISH RESIDENTS — PAPER MONEY. 



New York, May 7, 1827. 
DEAR , 

New York was founded by the Dutcb^ very 
early in the seventeenth century, at the southern 
end of a long narrow island ; the cows and other 
domestic animals having had the merit, as their 
historian Knickerbocker supposes, of laying out 
the streets and alleys. Tlie truth is, that the old 
part of the town, like similar ones in Europe, is 
narrow, crooked, and inconvenient ; but the 
larger and more modern portion is built with 
wide straight streets, good foot-pavements, and 
neat red brick houses, exactly in the English 
style. As the cities hi America were originally 
constructed of wood, many houses of that material 
still remain ; and occasion such constant accidents 
by fire, that scarcely a night passes without two 
or three. The engines are numerous, and well 
served, being turned out with alacrity as soon as 
tlie xinging of the church bells give an alarm ; 



11 

and so accustomed are the inhabitants to the noise 
and bustle of conflagrations, that unless one 
happens in their immediate neighbourhood, they 
take no notice whatever of the occurrence. 

This city does not contain many handsome 
buildings to attract the stranger, except the town- 
hall and the exchange — both built of stone ; but 
there are two small museums, a neat arcade for 
shops, clean baths, several theatres, billiard tables, 
and the castle battery, which projects some dis- 
tance into the bay, and being converted into a 
species of Vauxhall, affords a cool and delightful 
promenade on summer evenings. 

Broadway would be considered a handsome 
street in any town, and there is a great deal of 
commercial activity and bustle in every direction ; 
but the whole city is badly cleaned and lighted, 
without sewers, and destitute of any palatable 
water, not brought from the opposite village of 
Brooklyn. 

The private equipages here are neither very 
numerous nor elegant ; but the hackney coaches 
are good, and the number and convenience of 
the steam-boats seen plying about the river in 
every direction is truly astonishing ; so that for 
a penny you can cross over to Jersey or Long 
Island almost at any moment. 

The two branches of the Hudson which enclose 
New York form so extensive a bay, that during 



12 

very heavy gales from the north-west vessels 
have been frequently injured ; to lessen which 
danger^ and render the loading and unloading of 
cargoes more convenient, avast number of jetties 
or small piers have been projected, fifty or a 
hundred yards into the water; forming a kind of 
dock between them for merchantmen, but open to 
the river. The Government naval yard is at Long 
Island, east of Brooklyn ; and is considered the 
most complete establishment of the kind in the 
United States. 

There is not much activity in that department 
at present ; but vessels are generally framed from 
a beautiful model, and are much slighter than 
with us ; being built rather for fast sailing and 
economy in materials, than for tonnage and dura- 
bility. Their masts rake aft much more than ours, 
which may perhaps be one cause of their confessed 
superiority in sailing ; though the following rea- 
son given me by a shipwright appears plausible : 
The British act of parliament orders, that the 
tonnage of merchantmen shall be registered l)y 
multiplying the length into the breadth, and 
that product into half the breadth for the 
depth ; which induces the owner to build his ship 
as narrow, deep, and wall-sided, as he possibly 
can, making the stern nearly straight up and 
down, without tliat degree of projection necessary 
either for elegance or proportion. A large East 



13 

or West Indiaman, he told me, would thus gain 
150 tons at least over the register ; wherein con- 
sisted the true reason why they were in general 
such floating tubs, and made such long voyages. 

Several naval officers here have good humour- 
edly laughed at me, as an Englishman, because 
our Admiralty has appointed ten-gun brigs for the 
packet service, and employed the same descrip- 
tion of vessels to cruize against the pirates and 
slave traders. For they affirm it to be a well- 
known fact, and a British commander corroborates 
their testimony from his own experience, that 
those brigs are the worst sailers and incon- 
veniently arranged ships of war in our service ; 
so that they never can, except by chance, make 
a capture or quick passage, besides being par- 
ticularly uncomfortable. 

New York contains, I should think, about 
180,000 inhabitants, and both from its population 
and other advantages, is decidedly the most 
important city in the Union. Every man here is 
employed in some trade or other ; and though 
they have universally discarded the word shop 
as ungenteel, and adopted the softened term of 
store, yet Buonaparte's taunt of being a nation of 
shopkeepers, would have been much more ap- 
propriately applied here than in Britain. Dinner 
parties are not very common, but small dances and 
evening societies are both frequent and agreeable. 



14 

Many of the ladies are lively, handsome, and 
well educated; cultivathig music, French, Italian, 
and other accomplishments, with great success. 
Their complexions, features, and manners, are de- 
cidedly English ; but they are fond of adopting 
the gaudiest French modes of dress, and do not, 
I think, show in general much taste in the blend- 
ing of colours. 

The men are by no means deficient in acquire- 
ments, but have often a rude dictatorial way of 
contradicting each other, and wearing their hats 
in all places and under all circumstances, which 
betokens ill manners instead of perfect equality : 
in fact, there is here, as elsewhere, a complete 
aristocracy ; only the distinction is marked by 
superiority of wealth instead of birth ; and those 
who hold situations in the militia or other depart- 
ments are remarkably tenacious of their honor- 
ary titles. 

The superiority affected by the descendants of 
the Dutch settlers is quite annising ; as I am 
told they rarely associate or intermarry with their 
neighbours and fellow-citizens, but represent 
their ancestors as having belonged to the first 
families hi Holland, quite different from the needy 
or persecuted beings who usually become colo- 
nists. Their historian Knickerbocker, however, 
treats these worthies with something of disrespect; 
and tells us how they first intoxicated the Indians 



15 

with gin, then cheated them out of small portions 
of land, built forts, and by violence and bloodshed 
afterwards increased their territory. 

There are very few peculiarities here in the 
dress of the male population ; scarcely any are 
ragg-ed, but many are shabby. Excessively long 
-watch-chains and large seals are commonly sported ; 
high hats, large at the top, and with little brim, 
are worn, and it is the custom to rub the beaver 
against the fur ; so that one closely and neatly 
brushed, as with us, is a sure criterion of a fo- 
reigner. Persons in mourning wear voluminous 
folds of crape round the hat, with long flappers 
sticking out behind, like our undertakers; and 
in riding, the saddle is placed much more for- 
ward than with us, without any crupper : this 
may, perhaps, be owing to the horses being usu- 
ally large in the barrel, as they are never stinted 
in regard to water; but it decidedly has an un- 
graceful appearance, and, I should think, must 
deprive the rider of much of his power over the 
animal. 

The number of free blacks in this city is consi- 
derable ; and on the 4th of next July, even those few 
negroes in the state who have not completed the 
age oftwenty-five years, will be emancipated: they 
are generally employed as domestic servants; the 
want of which class in the community is severely 
felt by families. The lowest stations of the hard- 



16 

working- classes are generally filled by Irishmen, 
who are as much vilified here, whether justly or 
not I cannot tell, as in England or Scotland. 
They are accused of lighting false fires on the 
coast to cause shipwrecks, and then of plunder- 
hig- the vessel, having first knocked the crew on 
the head with stockings filled with stones ; and 
in short, if any peculiar atrocity is committed in 
the land, friend Pat is immediately suspected. 

New York is well supplied with fuel, vege- 
tables, fruit, meat, and poultry, from Long 
Island and Jersey ; fish is abundant, and of va- 
rious species ; but I cannot think the large taste- 
less oysters here, are equal to those we get in 
England. Wild fowl is innumerable ; wines, 
whisky, and spirits, the same as with us ; and, 
in short, there is no want of good eating and 
drinking, but it does not seem to me at much 
more reasoaable prices than with us. 

As church and state do not go hand in hand 
here, there are no tithes, each sect supporting 
its own ministers and places of worship ; but the 
distinction of pews is quite as rigidly enforced as 
with us, the doctrine of equality not extending 
to a communion of seats, or in truth to any of 
the other good things of this world. 

I am much pleased at observing the kindly 
feelings towards the mother country, which are 
now vei7 generally prevalent, and the liberal 



17 

sentiments of almost all I meet. It is plain they 
are no longer afraid of our attempting the hope- 
less task of reconquering them ; and^ therefore, 
refrain from implanting ridiculous prejudices and 
untruths in the minds of their children ; and the 
last war, by showing clearly the value of the 
commercial intercourse between the two nations, 
the difficulty of tlieir acquiring the Canadas, and 
our ability to harass their coasts, has likewise ma- 
terially tended towards a perfect reconciliation. 

That these republicans would exalt the British 
empire by undervaluing themselves, I conceive 
no man could either expect or wish : but I have 
met several highly respectable individuals, who 
declare the late hostilities to have been the work 
of a comparatively small faction, which thought 
England was too much hampered by the French 
under Napoleon to be able to attend to her 
American possessions, and therefore seized the 
opportunity of giving the sick lion a kick. 

Mr. Clay, I believe, or one of the commis- 
sioners who made so favourable a treaty at Ghent, 
wrote a very energetic letter to his government, 
on the renewed vigour and overwhelming power 
of the British ; and the great majority of the 
American citizens, thinking that the precise mo- 
ment of the quarrel did them no credit, were 
highly gratified when the peace was proclaimed. 

The letter alluded to, is now brought forward 

c 



19 

in accusation of the writer, by his political op- 
ponents. 

Some of my acquaintance here have taken 
much pains to describe to nie the torpedos, and 
various infernal machines which were invented 
by the New Yorkers, for the annoyance of Sir 
T. Hardy, when he blockaded their port; and 
they all speak in high terms of the skill and ho- 
nourable warfare of that distinguished officer, 
who, it appears, most effectually cut up their 
commerce. The like praise is not bestowed on 
another British admiral, whom they accuse of 
havino" allowed the women in a small town near 
the Chesapeake to be ill used by his crews ; and 
they speak of our having burnt the records and 
historical documents at Washington as a very 
paltry and unworthy measure. 

There are several very pleasing excursions 
within a short distance of this city, both in the 
well-cultivated and undulathig district of Long 
Island, and in the state of Jersey, near the 
woody cliffs of Hoboken ; seventeen miles from 
whence, close to the manufacturing town of Pat- 
terson, are the highly-beautiful Falls of the 
Passaic river; which many persons assure me, 
are the most picturesque ones in America ; but 
I have not yet visited them. 

At Hoboken, a number of gigs, horses, and 
neat light vehicles, called pleasure-waggons, are 



19 

always kept for hire, as the excursion to the 
Passaic is a favourite amusement with the citizens 
of New York : so is likewise a visit to the hand- 
some town of Newhaven, about sixty miles east, 
and in the state of Connecticut, to which the 
steam-boats convey them in rather less than six 
hours. 

There is one, and, I believe, several other 
packs of hounds kept in this vicinity, which, 
during the season, are hunted in the English 
style ; but the severity of the winter naturally 
curtails the number of sporting days. The breed 
of horses in New Jersey is extremely good ; and 
races are annually held in Long Island. 

New York is governed by a mayor and corpo- 
ration, as with us ; and the regulations of police, 
parish-rates, fines, and punishments, appear to 
be of a similar nature to our own. 

An European is struck with the almost total 
want of the precious metals which prevails, and 
the substitution oi' paper-money, for the value 
even of a dollar, or four shillings, throughout the 
United States. These notes are issued by private 
bankers, who obtain an act of incorporation 
without difficulty; for if one state legislature 
refuses to grant it, another is not so scrupulous. 
Tiie country is inundated with banks, and some 
failures continually take place; but their very 
number is a protection to the pubhc, as it is rare 

C 2 



20 

for any one firm to have a large sum in circu- 
lation. During- the last war with Britain, paper- 
money as low as one cent, about a halfpenny, 
was the medium instead of cash. 

I shall not apologize lor the length of my 
letters, because you provoked me to the task, 
and must suffer the penalty ; and in regard to 
any errors in judgment I have committed, or may 
hereafter be led into, I can only promise not to 
mislead you wilfully. Two individuals rarely see 
objects through the same medium ; therefore 
be not too harsh, should you find my accounts 
differ from those given by other writers. 

Yours sincerely, <&c. 



21 



LETTER III. 



STEAM-BOATS— PUBLIC COACHES — PHILADELPHIA.— BALTIMORE 
— HOTELS AND MODE OF LIVING — WASHINGTON CITY — 
SLAVES— THE CONSTITUTION. 



ffMshingion, May 18, 182?. 
DEA.R , 

I QUITTED my friends at New York with the 
regret due to their constant kindness and at- 
tentions. The steam-boat T embarked in w^as 
really superb_, both in size and fitting up ; con- 
taining two elegant cabins, and a smaller one for 
the ladies ; a bar supplied with fruit, wines, and 
all other etceteras ; a hair-dresser's shop ; and on 
the deck, plenty of chairs and benches, with a 
linen awning to keep off the sun. 

The price was as reasonable as the accommo- 
dations were good; the conveyance of ninety- 
six miles, to Philadelphia, being about seventeen 
shillings ; and the only trouble entailed on the 
traveller, was to keep a sharp look out after his 
portmanteau, the owners of the boat not being 
liable for losses. 

About 150 passengers of every grade in so- 



22 

ciety hastened on board as the bell gave warn- 
ing of six o'clock being about to strike ; and 
the powerful engine was stopped every few miles 
on our progress,, either to take in more indivi- 
duals, or allow those already with us to land. 
There was no other distinction of persons or 
place than the single regulation^, ^' No smoking 
aft the boiler/' and that of very properly al- 
lowing the ladies to seat themselves at table, 
before the cabin doors were opened, and the 
breakfast bell rang its welcome summons. Wel- 
come indeed it was ; and the instantaneous rush 
was terrific ! One of those cold north-westers, 
which cut to the very bone, had sharpened our 
appetites ; and with a most determined regard to 
self, but without quarrelling with his neighbours, 
each person precipitated himself down the stairs 
to the spot where fish, flesh, fowls, eggs, butter, 
tea, and coffee were disappearing with a sur- 
prising velocity. 

The great bay of the Hudson, westward of 
New York, is filled with strong stakes, driven 
into the mud by the fisliermen, to secure their 
nets; and between these our enormous but 
easily managed steam-boat had to track her 
course. The legislature of New York has lons" 
declared them a nuisance and impediment to 
navigation ; but the o})posite state of New Jersey 
has taken them under her protection, as the law- 



23 

ful rights of free citizens. To obviate this dif- 
ficulty. New York has laid claim to the whole 
river, as far as high-water mark, on the Jersey 
shore ; the other resists, and the lawyers have 
kindly undertaken to defend the interests of all 
parties. 

An American man-of-war was now lying at 
anchor in the centre of these important stakes, 
and at every change of the tide her huge sides 
swept away acres of the annoyance. It was quite 
amusing to listen to the remarks of my fellow- 
voyagers : " A glorious sweep, that last," said 
the New Yorkers : '^ A damnation tyrannical 
act," replied i; Jerseyite ; '^ I guess they lengthen 
the cable and shift their situation on purpose. 
I see no right the time-serving government at 
Washington has to order its ships into our waters, 
and I will move in the House that they be or- 
dered out.'' 

Theshores on both sides, as we passed be- 
tween Staten Island and Jersey, were dotted with 
farms and neat-looking houses : all were built 
of boards, painted white, with green window- 
shutters or Venetian bUnds. Cultivation did not 
appear to extend far from the rivers, but was 
carried on exactly as in England, in fields and 
small divisions : the general appearance of the 
country was flat and woody, the hills, or ratlier 
undulations, low; but the spires of village 



24 

churches were seen peeping out in various di- 
rections ; while the reflection, that each inmate of 
the pretty and comfortable houses around was 
proprietor of the land and orchard he cultivated_, 
added much cheerfulness to the whole scene. 

At the town of New Brunswick on the Raritan, 
ten stage-coaches were in readiness to convey 
those who chose to the Delaware. These ve- 
hicles are low, without springs, and open on every 
side, unless the leather curtains are let down ; 
but the road was tolerable, and 1 did not get my 
bones quite so much dislocated as I anticipated. 
There were three seats inside, containing in all 
nine persons, besides one on the box with the 
coachman; and 1 assure you, the four strong 
handsome horses, with harness like our own, but 
without brass ornaments, were driven over the 
twenty-seven miles in three hours and a half. 
The drivers change with their horses, and never 
ask for fees ! 

We passed through several villages, one of 
which contained a college for the professional 
studies ; and I remarked, that the farms were 
large, of a light soil, well cultivated, with each 
an extensive orchard of apple, pear, cherry, and 
peach trees, besides vast tracts of small timber, 
for the supply, I understood, of fuel to New 
York. 
At the well-built and populous town of Trenton, 



25 

a steam-boat was waiting* on tiie Delaware for 
our arrival. The river is there about as wide as 
the Thames at Kew^ with five wooden arclies 
across it^ and the road suspended below by strong- 
beams^ so as to be quite level : it is, in fact, 
upheld in a manner just the reverse of our chain 
bridg'es in North Wales. 

The banks of the Dekiware are pleasing", and 
have many country-houses ; among" others, that 
of Joseph Buonaparte, once king' of Spain, hut 
now known only as a wealthy and amiable country 
gentleman, entirely occupied with his obser- 
vatory and scientific pursuits. Further down, I 
saw Burlington, Bristol, several other villages, 
and a quicker succession of gentlemen's seats, 
which are built of dark-coloured stone in Penn- 
sylvania, till at length, about sun-set, the large 
city of Philadelphia rose like an amphitheatre, 
thirty or forty feet higher than the sweeping 
bend of the fine river, which the wheels of our 
vessel were violently agitating. 

We had run the forty miles from Trenton in 
three hours and a half, against both wind and 
tide. 

Philadelphia is the most regular built town I 
ever saw : but as it is entirely of red brick, with 
houses all of the same size, only two stories 
above the ground floor, and has but one steeple 
to break the monotony of the scene ; it is rather 



26 

remarkable for neatness and comfort, than the 
slightest pretensions to magnificence. 

The streets are abont as wide as Bond Street, 
quite straight, and a mile and a half long, well 
paved and clean, with a broad footway of bricks 
on each side, and in some places a few trees, 
which greatly enliven the view. The town-hall 
is a large heavy building, in which is a statue to 
Washington, and a museum, not so good, I think, 
as those of New York. 

The theatre is small and neat, and in it I saw 
perform a Mr. Forrest, who is certainly a pro- 
mising tragedian, but rather a ranter. Several 
of the private banks are built of stone in a very 
handsome style; but the Exchange and Custom- 
house are unworthy of so great a city. 

In the centre of the town is Market Street, 
sufficiently wide to allow along well-built covered 
shed to run down the middle, and spoil the best 
thoroughfare of the place : besides, the ex- 
cessive length of the stalls must render the pur- 
chase of articles extremely tedious and incon- 
venient. 

There are also two smaller markets ; and it 
seems generally allowed, that no town in the 
Union is better supplied with the necessaries and 
comforts of life, or at a more reasonable rate, 
than Pliiladelphia. The society of well edu- 
cated and agreeable families, is likewise on a 



27 

more extended scale in that city than any other 
of the Union ; for though there are many whose 
esteem and intimacy you would wish to cultivate 
in other places_, no spot in America can boast of 
so many citizens of easy fortune, free from the 
anxieties of speculations and disappointments : 
in short, more elegantly dressed pretty women, 
and gentlemenly young men, with neater turns 
out of horses and equipages are seen there than 
any where else in the Union ; and Chesnut Street 
is more fashionable, taking the year round, than 
either the Broadway of New York or the Avenues 
of Washington, 

The dock-yard is small, and at the southern 
extremity of the town. The Americans there 
build their vessels, under large wooden houses, 
and place salt between the ribs, as they declare, 
to prevent the dry-rot. Scarcely any thing is 
now going on; but a sixty-gun frigate and a 
large three decker are on the stocks nearly 
complete. That port is evidently sinking daily 
in commercial importance, which arises, perhaps, 
not only from the long and dangerous navigation 
of its river, and the proximity of New York, but 
from the minds of the population turning with 
more pleasure towards agriculture, coal-mines, 
and manufactures, than the dangers and dis- 
comforts of a seafaring life. 

Will you think me blind to the resources and 



28 

genius of tliis thriving- republic^ when I assure 
you, that the more I converse and associate with 
its inhabitants, the more satisfied I am the nav.y 
is not a popuhir service. I have become ac- 
quainted with many well-informed officers in that 
department ; and even they generally end their 
patriotic expressions of pride at the renown their 
maritime exertions have obtained with " One 
more \oyage, and then for a farm in the back 
countries." 

Between you and 1, my dear , who the 

devil would prefer the miseries and monotony of 
a sailor's life, unless forced to it by necessity, 
or called to defend the independence of his 
country ? 

What the Philadelphians justly pride them- 
selves most upon, are the water-works for the 
supply of the city. These are situated on the 
river Schuylkill, where it runs almost parallel 
with the Delaware, and about three miles west- 
ward of it. By building a strong stone dam 
across the stream, power has been given to three 
large wheels, each of which throws up to re- 
servoirs 100 feet above them, no less than 1000 
gallons of clear and excellent water per minute: 
the basins are calculated to contain ten millions 
of gallons, and iron pipes convey this indis- 
pensable article to every house in the town. 

The consumption is at present two millions of 



29 

gallons ill the twenty-four hours ; and each house- 
holder pays 1/. a year^ or 1/. 12*. if private 
baths are to be supplied^ without scarcely any 
restriction as to quantity. 

The banks of the Schuylkill are broken and 
very pleasing-, being studded with gentlemen's 
seats and pleasure gardens, some of which have 
large hot and green houses as with us : in fact, 
it is difficult to travel through the United States 
without being every moment reminded of Eng- 
land. 

I "^ reckon " the population of the Pennsyl- 
vanian capital to be 150,000, of whom one-sixth 
part are said to be free negroes ; and these 
gentry are becoming a cause of such great in- 
quietude^ even to their staunchest advocates, 
that a colony called "^ Liberia " has been formed 
expressly for them on the coast of Africa, and 
to ^^ hich they are not always very willing' to go, 
if reports are to be credited. 

I cannot have a fitter opportunity than while 
writing about that most correct and orderly city, 
to clear up your favourite hypothesis, "^ that in 
a country where no man who will work can have 
the slightest fear of not providing enough for 
his children to eat, the morality of the youthful 
must be much more exemplary, as no prudential 
reasons will prevent early attachments and mar- 
riages.^^ Depend on it^ mankind are much the 



30 

same here as elsewhere ; and not only are there 
very numerous individuals^ possessing tender 
hearts and light purses, who endeavour to as- 
certain in Philadelphia whether others are equally 
susceptible with themselves, but many of them 
are even adorned in the becoming dresses of 
quakeresses. 

The steam-boat which conveyed me to New- 
castle had on board a company of Baltimore 
volunteers, who with their band, had been paying 
a few days' visit to their military friends of the 
sister state ; and I must do them the justice to 
say, they were a well-dressed, good-looking, sol- 
dier-like set of young men, who seemed to take 
much pride in their appearance and conduct. I 
never rejnember to have witnessed half the hearty 
good-will displayed by the citizens of England 
towards soldiers that I observed on several oc- 
casions among these republicans : here the news- 
papers even are bold enough to praise a military 
mania, and very many private schools in different 
states have adopted an uniform. 

The Delaware widened considerably as we 
descended ; the banks were flat and well culti- 
vated, with a dense woody background, of evi- 
dently a recent growth. 

The sixteen miles across part of the states of 
Delaware and Maryland, were rendered an agree- 
able drive by the culti\ation and different vil- 



31 

lages ; but the soil was far from rich, and the 
country was quite level. At Frenchtown on the 
Chesapeake, we got on board a steam-boat, the 
cabins of which were fitted up with fifty or sixty 
clean and comfortable beds, but as our party was 
far more numerous, lots were drawn for the 
births, and those who got a blank went to sleep 
on the chairs and tables. 

The hotels at Philadelphia were good; but 
that of Mr. Barnham, at Baltimore, is one of the 
most complete establishments I ever saw. It is 
built of stone, in the best part of the town, and 
close to the uncommonly elegant monument 
which commemorates a skirmish with the British 
in 1814: the bed-rooms are very numerous, suf- 
ficiently large and airy, while the convenience of 
having baths, and a hair-dresser, &c. in the 
house, with the moderate charge of 6s. daily, 
meals included, leaves nothing to be desired. 

A man who makes a tour in this Republic must 
either conform to the customs of the natives, or 
be kept in continual irritation by useless com- 
plaints. The servants neither ask for, or often 
receive any remuneration, and of course, they 
take very little trouble in their attentions to 
travellers; but as an European can rarely shake 
off his old habits, and do without attendance, I 
always make an arrangement with the head 
waiter, and for a few shillings find my comfort 



32 

wonderfully increased. I then demand the hours 
of the house, and am carefully punctual at break- 
fast, dhmer, and tea; because nothing- can be 
had at other times, or in private apartments. 

All the inmates eat at the table-d'hotes, which 
are supplied with very great profusion ; but as 
many from the neighbouring dwellings are in the 
habit of paying' a weekly sum for the same pri- 
vilege, not unfrequently above 200 persons sit 
down to the attack, and great activity of hands 
and teeth, as well as a quick eye to scan the 
contents of dishes, is indispensable. 

Tlie first time I was initiated into the approved 
manner of proceeding at one of those dinners, 
I scarcely got any thing to eat through my asto- 
nishment. A few minutes before two oYlock 
the outer rooms were crowded to excess ; small 
parties were edging knowingly towards the for- 
bidden door, through which, on the ringing of a 
bell, the whole mass of hungry beings poured 
tumultuously. In seven minutes and a half ex- 
actly, the dishes offish, joints, poultry, and tarts 
were almost entirely cleared, goblets of brandy 
and water, "a la discretion," had been swal- 
lowed, and two-thirds of the chairs were again 
vacant. 

It is their anxiety to get back to their country- 
houses and business which alone induces this 
extraordinary haste j for I have seen less drunk- 



33 

eiiness and more abstemiousness in the United 
States of America^ than in any other country I 
ever visited. 

Baltimore is neither so large nor so populous 
as New York and Philadelphia ; but I like its 
appearance better^ as it is built on more uneven 
ground^ and its streets are usually wide, clean, 
and straight, without being so undeviatingly re- 
gular as those of the latter-named town. The 
houses are of brick, but some much larger than 
the others, and many have a small garden, or a 
few trees before them, which always makes an 
agreeable contrast. 

The Exchange is a handsome stone building ; 
and there is a lofty column in honour of Wash- 
ington, to the south of the town, from the sunmiit 
of which the prospect is extensive. A theatre, a 
museum, a picture gallery, and a dock-yard, with 
several excellent springs of water, markets, and 
quays, are also found in the capital of Maryland; 
but it possesses that curse of the southern states, 
a slave population rapidly increasing, and daily 
becoming more formidable. 

The very sight of slavery in the American re- 
public is infinitely more revolting to the feelings 
of an Englishman than in the West India islands, 
and the reason is obvious enough : in the latter, 
the trees, the climate, the culture, every object 
in short which meets his eye is exotic, is strange, 

D 



34 

and the negro slave strikes the mind as a novelty 
inseparable from the others : but in the United 
States^ none of those differences are very de- 
cidedly marked, while the houses and manners of 
the people are so entirely English, that the sight 
of a gang of slaves had the same effect upon me, 
as if witnessed in the vicinity of London. 

T do not doubt, as far as the mere animal is 
concerned, but that the slave is often much 
better off than the white labourer. He eats, 
drinks, sleeps, and has a large family around 
him, without fear of poverty; in sickness or 
health, in youth or age, he must be provided 
for and protected and clothed, at least, such is 
the present law in the British West Indies. But 
he is still the property of another, he can have 
no affections of the heart or feelings of the man 
at his own control : he can have no stimulus to 
exertion, except fear of punishment; no pride 
as a citizen or human being ; but his whole en- 
joyment is in the present indulgence of his pas- 
sions and vices. 

The increase among the negroes is in a ratio 
out of all proportion to that of the whites of the 
warmer states, because their children are not so 
much affected by the heat and epidemics ; a;id 
1 am assured by various gentlemen, that the 
number of slaves throughout the Union at this 
moment amounts to nearly three millions. I 



35 

cannot credit the correctness of this information^ 
and believe their fears magnify the object ; for 
almost all eagerly discuss the prudence and ne- 
cessity of getting rid of their slaves, provided 
themselves and families are not reduced to beg- 
gary by the means adopted, and that the " nig- 
gers,^^ when emancipated, shall be removed to 
a distance. 

The thirty-eight miles from Baltimore to 
Washington is over a deep sandy road, and 
through a remarkably poor tract of gently-rising 
hills, possessing very few cultivated spots 
amidst the wide forest of young oaks, but a 
large quantity of iron ore : and when popu- 
lation becomes sufficiently dense to oblige the 
farmer to improve the less productive soils, I 
should think the vicinity of many of the rivulets 
I passed, might be rendered valuable pro- 
perty. 

After a most tedious drag of many hours, the 
coach came in sight of the wide Potomac, with 
its headlands and deep-shaded bays to our left ; 
while in front was a large space of dreary 
clearing, without trees, without cultivation, and 
the habitations seemingly without order, and 
lost in the vastness of the melancholy circle. 

On a small rising in the centre stands a very 
elegant stone building of imposing dimensions, 
with a fine faQade of columns at its principal 

D 2 



36 

entrance, but with a dome disproportionately 
larg-e for the edifice, and doorways far too 
small : tiiis is the Capitol. The interior is hand- 
some and conveniently arranged : at the north- 
ern extremity is the senate hall, richly fitted up ; 
while the southern is occupied by the hall of 
representatives, a semicircular apartment, sup- 
ported by marble pillars. The public is freely 
admitted to the debates, except individuals 
tainted with dark faces. 

The library occupies part of the west front, 
and not only commands a view down a long wide 
aveiuie of poplar trees, to the handsome stone 
residence of the president, but beyond, to the 
country-seats and park -like scenery in the vici- 
nity of Georg-etown. The inside of the dome 
is partly decorated with some large paintings, 
the execution of which struck me as unworthy 
both of the subjects and the situation. 

Washington, as a city, cannot yet be said to 
exist ! The intended plan on paper is truly 
magnificent ; but very little has yet been done, 
and I much doubt whether it will ever be accom- 
plished ; as the country round is peculiarly poor, 
and the receding waters of the Potomac nuist 
prevent its dock-yard becoming a great naval 
station. 

A foreigner who visits no other part of the 
Union than this metropolis of the Federation, 



37 

will quit the country with extremely erroneous 
ideas of the power and resources of the United 
States. The scale on which it Avas commenced 
was so g-rand, that what exists is paltry in the 
extreme^ and alike undeserving- of the efforts of 
so great a nation, and of the sacred name it bears 

There is a district of ten or twelve square 
leagues attached to this city^ under the immediate 
jurisdiction of the general government ; but as 
the original great error was committed of not 
abolishing slavery here^ the executive cannot in- 
terfere on that point with the new territories of 
the republic. 

The proportion of blacks seen in these streets, 
now that the Congress is not sitting and few 
visitors are met with, is really quite astonishing ; 
but 1 cannot agree with my American friends, 
that it is one of the curses entailed by " Mother 
Britain :" because, when they told '' Mother 
Britain " to keep at home, and mind her own 
affairs, they could just as easily have got rid of 
all the evils attending her management, as of 
part of them. 

The vast state of Virginia, which has hitherto 
been the most powerful and influential in the 
Anglo-American republic, is still governed by 
her original colonial charter, without any material 
modifications or alterations, as far as I can learn ; 
and it must be a matter of regret, that the high- 



38 

minded and polished Virginian gentlemen are, 
as a body, fast losing their political importance. 

Their country scarcely now stands fourth, in the 
returns to Congress ! You know enough of the 
constitution of this nation, to make the following 
brief sketch quite suQicient for the purposes of a 
letter. There are at present twenty-four states or 
republics, perfectly independent of each other as 
far as regards their internal laws and government ; 
but ia order to tighten the bonds of amity, and for 
mutual protection, it has been agreed to nominate 
a general council and executive, at this city of 
Washhigton, to decide on peace and war, and 
legislate on the collective interests of the whole 
Union. Each 40,000 citizens not receiving 
parochial relief, or confined in prison, sends one 
member to this Congress, who is paid one or two 
guineas a-day during the time of meeting, accord- 
ing to the wealth and generosity of the state he 
is deputed from : therefore, in all calculations of 
comparative expense in governing, it should be 
remem})ered that the people of this country have 
to suj)port twenty-five different establishments ; 
the aggregate amount of which, although far less 
than our expenditure in Great Britain, presses 
perhaps equally heavy on the means of the 
community. 

The territories not having apopulation of 40,000 
citizens, arc governed by the president and execu- 



39 

tive at Washington ; to support whose dignity^ 
and other contingencies, the customs of all the 
ports in the Union are placed at its disposal. 

Party spirit is runnhig high about the election 
of president the ensuing four years ; and the innu- 
merable newspapers of the Union bespatter the 
candidates, their partisans, and each other, with 
more abuse and acrimony than I ever noticed in 
England. Many of these journals are extremely 
well edited ; and it is surprising, that almost 
every village should possess some few individuals 
capable of conducting one at all. 

Speedy oblivion is the merited fate of a large 
proportion ; more particularly when they indulge 
in such effusions, as calling Lord Cochrane the 
saviour — the Messiah of Greece ; or declaring, 
that Mr. Jefferson was a greater man than Jesus 
Christ, &c. Statements which disgust a large 
proportion of this community, quite as much as 
they can you or myself; and yet my observations 
lead me to the conclusion, that deism is the only 
religion likely to become preponderating in this 
republic. 

Havhig now visited four of the most populous 
and celebrated cities in the United States, I think 
myself able to assert, without leading you much 
into error, that rarely other than the second best 
European articles can be purchased in their shops; 



40 

but as the people know no comparison, they are 
themselves deceived as to the goodness. 

All clothing is excessively expensive ; and a 
coat of the finest and best materials is about dou- 
ble the price of a shnilar one in England : hats 
and boots are in the same proportion. 

Before closing this letter, I must mention an 
anecdote repeated to me by a young Englishman 
of the very first connexions, and which does in- 
finite honour to the American character. I think 
he told me it was at Barnham's table-d'hote, in 
Baltimore, that one of our countrymen l)eing most 
grossly and unprovokedly attacked about his 
government, his nation, his politics, &c.; and 
having in vain endeavoured to stop the torrent 
of abuse, appealed to the company at large as 
to the propriety of such usage towards an un- 
offending stranger; when many individuals seized 
the assailant, and kicked him out of the room 
into the street ; declaring he had outraged the 
whole party by his disgraceful conduct. 

Yours very sincerely, &c. 



41 



LETTER IV. 



HUDSON RIVER — PASSENGERS IN STEAM-BOATS — ALBANY — 
COHOES FALLS — ERIE CANAL — MOHAWK RIVER — UTICA — 
ROADS — TRENTON FALLS — VALUE OF LAND — PRODUCE AND 
LABOUR. 

Utica, May 27, 1827. 
DEAR ' — , 

My desire of seeing as much of this interesting' 
country as possible, caused my second visit to 
New York to be a very short one ; and embark- 
ing in a steam-boat as big as a frigate, but draw- 
ing only four feet water, we pushed up the Hudson 
at the rate of eleven knots the hoiu'. As nobody 
thinks of going the 150 miles to Albany by any 
other mode of conveyance, upwards of 200 pas- 
sengers were on board ; the total demand for 
each, including breakfast, dinner, and supper, 
being only sixteen shillings ; and for what I 
know, the two or three other daily boats up the 
river were equally cheap and well attended. 

The Hudson is a noble river ; something less 
than a mile wide, where the curious natural bar- 
rier called the '^ Palisades,^' composed of a sort 
of hard columnar rock, fifty or sixty feet liigh. 



42 

forms its western bank for seven or eight leagues ; 
and then expanding its surface to what the old 
Dutch settlers used to call a sea. But its shores 
are never swampy ; and are adorned with a con- 
tinual succession of villages, farm-houses^ citizens' 
seats, cultivation, and orchards. 

A ridge of rocky hills, 700 or 800 feet high, 
contracts its waters considerably, at a distance of 
forty miles from the city ; and its windings through 
that long devious defile, where some precipices 
are perpendicular, others steep and stony, and 
all partially covered with stunted trees, is really 
beautiful. It is called " the Highlands ;" and 
the scenery is much improved by a few rocky 
islets ; on one of which formerly stood a fort, 
but at present a light-house. 

About the centre of the pass, on a level pro- 
montory which juts out in a remarkable manner, 
is the military college of the United States. It 
is named West Point, and has several stone 
buildings more than one hundred ^eei above the 
river, over whose course it has a commanding 
view, both up and down the stream. 

This establishment is for 260 students, sub- 
jected to a severe discipline ; and is well kept 
up, so as to ensure good officers for the engineers 
and artillery. The stone ruins of Fort Putnam 
are above the college, having rather a picturesque 
appearance ; and neat monuments have been 



43 

raised to the memory of Kociusko and others ; 
while the surrounding country is pecuUarly in- 
teresthigv, from recollections of the war of inde- 
pendence and the lamented fate of Major Andre. 

Newburg is a flourishing town of 2500 inha- 
bitants, on the west bank of the river ; and the 
boat passed many villages before reaching the 
city of Hudson, which probably has nearly dou- 
ble that number. This place was founded by 
the Dutch, and does great credit to their taste ; 
for exactly opposite, ten or twelve miles more to 
the westward, rise the finely-marked and woody 
Catskill mountains. 

Persons in the steam-boat differed much as to 
the height of those mountains ; but T doubt any 
point of their outline being more than 2500 feet 
above the water ; for the rare appearance of 
elevated peaks in the vast countries of North 
America, is apt, I think, to make the traveller 
magnify those he does meet with. 

On one of the summits of the Catskill is a large 
summer hotel, called the Pine Orchard ; and I 
miderstood some of the scenery around it was 
highly romantic and worthy of a visit. 

The freedom of intercourse and equality of 
privileges, studiously affected in all 'public con- 
veyances and hotels of the Union, often gives a 
man an opportunity of mixing with a class of 
society he never had associated with in Europe ; 



44 

and on these occasions 1 have scarcely ever re- 
marked any gross vulgarity;, or any rude attacks 
on me as a foreigner. Those disao-reeable de- 
viations from good breeding, such as cutting the 
butter^ cheese, potfitoes, or tarts with their own 
knives, 1 endeavoured to rectify, by lielping my- 
self from a part not already invaded; and without 

agreeing exactly with our Irish friend , tliat 

" the only pure English is spoken in Dublin/' it 
cannot escape observation, how entirely free the 
lower orders of Americans are from the pro\ in- 
cialisms of what they kindly term " The Old 
Country.'^ 

The peculiarities oi guess, reckon, calculate , 
•pretty considerable, privileges of water , consi- 
derable dry, and often dropping the monosylla- 
bles, sound rather odd to me in conversation, 
but have nothing offensive ; and the same may 
be said of engine, genuine, and similar words, 
which we in Britain pronounce short. 

There is one practice, however, besides cigar- 
smoking, so general, even among the better 
classes of these republicans, that I may almost 
term it universal ; and which, in my opinion, 
is particularly disgusting and ungentlenmnly — 
it is chewing tobacco ! 

Picture to yourself — what I have often wit- 
nessed — well-educated and well-dressed young 
men of fortune, when endeavouring to render 



45 

themselves agreeable to ladies, who would shine 
in any society by their vivacity and personal 
attractions, have been obliged to shift their quids 
from cheek to cheek, as suited their articulation 
or convenience ; have turned their heads con- 
tinually in order to squirt out a quantity of dark- 
coloured saliva ; and with an open penknife in 
their hand, have alternately picked their teeth 
and their nails. 

The flounces and dresses of females are con- 
tinually being soiled by the spittle, which is 
lying about in every direction ; and what is sin- 
gular enough, I have seen most respectable men 
actually turn from the side of the vessel over 
which they were leaning, purposely to spit on 
the boards ; fearful, I suppose, that they might 
not otherwise have been known to be adepts in 
so elegant an accomplishment. 

Albany is situated on the steep slope of a 
small hill, with some wide and good streets, not 
remarkable however for their cleanliness ; but 
which contain many handsome buildings of brick, 
and a few of stone. The Hudson is there about 
one-third of a mile across, with a tide of nearly 
three feet ; yet the channel is so continually get- 
ting choked up, as to prevent, in the dry season, 
the larger steam-boats from coming within four 
miles of the city ; and a short canal is seriously 
talked of to obviate the difficulty. 



46 

Larfi^e docks and wharfs, in the true Dutch 
taste, are formed in the bed of the river ; and 
several low islands of pasture and trees^ divide 
the stream in the vicinity. This town is the seat 
of g-overnment for the state of New York^ and 
contahis about 18,000 people, whose wealth and 
numbers increase yearly ; but it was the first 
spot in the republic where I had met with beg- 
gars ; and I am sorry to acknowledge they were 
Irish. It is a remark made in every society, and 
every village of this immense country, that the 
Scotch, English, Germans, and Dutch, all get 
on and thrive ; but the Irish labourer very rarely 
attains independence, changing only the nature 
of his toil, from the hackney coachman to the 
porter, the pavior, or the hired drudge. 

The hotels in Albany are equally comfortable 
with the others I had met with ; and, as usual, 
I found the inmates divided into political parties 
and factions. For tlie mass of the people here 
are more addicted to such discussions and dis- 
putes, than even my good countrymen at home. 
Some declared vehemently that the legislature 
was both formed and ruled by the back-settlers, 
while trade and manufactures were without re- 
presentation or protection ; others asserted that 
agriculture alone ought to be favoured, and the 
import duties on goods should be reduced one- 
halt" : but every body joined in the most furious 



47 

abuse of a clergyman at Boston, who had recently 
dared, they said, contrary to the ordinances of 
God and man, to marry a white girl to a free negro. 

Excellent horses and gigs can be hired at 
Albany, and I drove in one of them over a very 
bad road, to see the Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk. 
A little to the north of the town, I passed the good 
brick mansion of the " Patroon," or head of the 
Rensselaer family, one of the largest and richest 
landowners in America ; and close to it the Erie 
Canal falls into the Hndson. 

This noble work is 360 miles in length ; and 
by the means of eighty well-constructed stone 
locks, is raised 662 feet to the height of Lake 
Erie. It is forty feet wide at the surface, four 
feet deep ; and barges of 150 tons with flour, 
salt, and the other productions of the western 
countries, besides covered tow-boats, are con- 
stantly passing it. This canal, together with 
the northern one for Lake Champlain, cost rather 
less than £2,000,000 ; a sum which the tolls will 
very speedily repay. But it is impossible not 
to admire the energy and public spirit of the 
state of New York, which commenced and 
finished so vast an undertaking, although refused 
assistance by the Congress at Washington. 

At the village of Gibbonsville is a national 
depot of arms and stores for the northern and 
eastern section of the Union ; which, by its neat- 



48 

ness and good arrang-ement^ does great credit to 
the government. On the opposite side of the 
river is Troy ; one of the best built and most 
thriving towns in the country, with a population 
of 8000. 

Steam ferry-boats ply across continually; and 
immediately behind that place are green pasture 
hills, some hundreds of feet high, besides the 
deep woody glen and cascade of Ida. To other 
spots in the vicinity such classical names as 
Olympus, &c. are given ; which appears to me 
rather pedantic, where there is not the slightest 
resemblance to Asiatic climate, customs, build- 
ings, or people. 

The river Mohawk, is from 250 to 300 yards 
across, just above its junction with the Hudson ; 
and after rushing down a short declivity, pre- 
cipitates itself over a ledge of black slate rock, 
seventy-six feet high. In one spot a large mass 
l)rojects some feet down the stream ; and over 
this the water trickled in ten thousand silvery 
veins, while the beams of the sun formed a 
beautiful rainbow on the white foam. 

The best situation for viewing the scene, is 
from among a few trees on the southern cliff; 
and as I had never before witnessed so vast a 
fall of water, 1 was undoubtedly struck with 
mingled sensations of pleasure and awe; but I 
know many Lilliputian cascades in England and 



49 

Wales, whose accompaniments of wood and 
rock make them infinitely more picturesque than 
the mighty torrent of the Cohoes. 

The road from Troy to Schenectady (fourteen 
miles) I found almost impassable, and very little 
of the woods cleared for cultivation ; but the 
environs of the latter town, which, not many years 
back, was one of the outposts of civilization, af- 
forded a charming landscape of richness and 
industry. The place itself has wide straight 
streets, with numerous shops, inns, a college, 
and about 5000 people ; who complained most 
bitterly that the Erie Canal had destroyed their 
carrying trade to Albany. 

A tow-boat, neatly fitted up with a library, 
beds, &c. conveyed me the eighty miles to Utica ; 
the charge, including three good meals, being 
only fourteen shillings ; and the sole incon- 
venience that of stooping to avoid the low bridges 
when I walked the deck, or rather roof; as they 
cross the canal much more frequently than there 
is the least necessity for. Three days before 
my arrival, an unlucky French passenger hearing 
the usual cry of '^'^ Look out, look out,'' thrust his 
head out of the nearest window to see the fun, 
and very narrowly escaped with his life, getting a 
most violent blow from the buttress. 

The Erie Canal winds up the valley of the 
Mohawk, a little above the river ; and nothing 
can be more pleasing than the views on every 

E 



00 

side : small hills of wood and cultivation; vil- 
lages rising into size and regularity, as if by 
magic ; a healthy and numerous population, 
ready to answer questions with civility, and 
guessing that 1 came from the ^' Old Country 
far away," reckoned I might perhaps know such 
and such places in England. 

The houses are all of painted planks, perfectly 
clean, and amply furnished with tables, chairs, 
bedsteads and bedding', curtains, crockery-ware, 
and kitchen utensils ; while an abundance of 
bread, meat, fowls, tea, coftee, eggs, butter, 
cheese, beer, cider, and spirituous liquors, can 
be purchased without difficulty. 

After traversing (ifty miles the scene changed; 
a mere rocky gorge, scarcely allowing room for 
the river, canal, and puljlic road, wound between 
woody precipices of granite, 600 or 700 feet high; 
and there the Mohawk rushed down a continua- 
tion of rapids, its white foam beautifully con- 
trasted witli the foliage and trunks of trees. It 
is named '' The Little Falls ;" and tlie cheerful 
village above has several hotels for sunnner 
visitors, with a stone aqueduct for a branch cut 
to the canal. A thick and high wall rising from 
the very bed of the river, supports at this place 
the canal itself; but it soon after enters on the 
rich tract called the " German Flats," which is 
evidently an alluvial formation. 
Utica is a new and handsome town, of 7000 



51 

inhabitants, with wide paved streets, lamps, and 
footways ; houses of brick, sometimes faced with 
stone, Hbraries, print shops, lottery offices, 
capital iims, and shops, displaying to the best 
advantage, and with much taste, every species 
of merchandise. I have seen many well-dressed 
women here, purchasing or turning over the 
different muslins and trinkets, vv'ith as much 
satisfaction as those iu England ; and ap- 
parently quite as contented to walk with 
parasols for the purpose of shopping, as our 
fair countrywomen are to drive in their carriages. 

The great vale in which Utica stands, is rich 
in pasture, arable, and woodland ; is adapted 
to every species of husbandry ; has already 
much productive cultivation, and great numbers 
of sheep and cattle. It is also nearly in the 
centre of the state of New York ; therefore I have 
taken a good deal of pains to ascertain the gene- 
ral prices of the vicinity, and believe the follow- 
ing information is tolerably correct. 

An acre of land under cultivation, is from 
£3 to £10, according to its situation relative to 
the town ; a good gig or saddle horse, from 
£16 to £20 ; a light waggon used as our taxed 
carts, £7 or £8 ; a cow in milk, £5 ; a bushel 
of wheat, 3.9. 3d.; of Indian corn, 2.9. ; ofoat.s, 
1*. 6c/. ; of best potatoes, l.S'. 3d. ; of ajJples, 
from 2s. to 4s. ; a cord of fire-wood, 8*. to lO^.,* 

E 2 



52 

beef 4^d. ihe pound ; mutton, 3d. ; a turkey, 
or two fowls, from 9d. to 1*. 

A g-ood carpenter or blacksmith will gain 
from four to five shillings daily ; a mason, from 
five to six shillings ; an ostler, gardener, or 
labourer, from two to three shillings, besides 
their food. All articles of dress and clothing 
are very dear ; as they chiefly come from Eu- 
rope, and pay a heavy import duty. 
, Yesterday I wished to go about fourteen 
miles to the north, in order to see the Falls at 
Trenton ; and was recommended to hire a light 
one-horse waggon without springs, instead of a 
gig. Lucky it was I did so ; for in my life I 
never met with such a road and such ruts ; but 
as the wetness of the spring had prevented the 
possibility of mending it, the turnpike was thrown 
open and no toll demanded. 

They make use here of the droll phrase 
" fixing the roads ;" which means, that when 
the frozen snow has passed away and the fine 
weather regularly set in, the dirt is scraped into 
the ruts, the holes are filled up, and the whole, 
when rolled, becomes smooth and firm until the 
rains recommence. Should a coach or waggon 
attempt to use these roads too soon after the 
melting of the snow, they sink to the axle ; 
flounder from bad to worse, and are only pre- 
vented from oversetting by cords fastened at 



53 

the top, and pulled on each side, according to 
circumstances. 

I have myself seen a turnpike road near this 
place actually ploughed and rolled ; that being 
considered the easiest way to " fix" it ; and it 
really is at this moment as hard and excellent 
as could be wished. 

On this excursion, when I had at last dragged 
through the meadows and jolted up a long hill, 
I enjoyed a delightful view over an extensive and 
diversified country, without however any eleva- 
tion in the wide expanse which approached the 
proportions of a mountain ; and my impression 
decidedly was, that about an eighth of this dis- 
trict is cleared and under tillage. Each succeed- 
ing winter, thousands of acres are denuded of 
timber ; the stumps standing several years above 
the ground till they dry, get burnt, rot, and are 
grubbed up ; while in the mean time the farmer 
ploughs the soil between the roots, and gets a 
much better crop than under such circumstances 
I had thought possible. 

The prospect reminded me of some of the 
more level and woody parts of Hertfordshire ; 
and when talking with those I overtook or met, 
I was obliged to look at the stumps of trees 
among the young wheat, the great proportion 
of dark firs, mingled with the beech, birch, and 
sugar maple, or the zig-zag fences of split 



54 

trunks, before I could believe myself 300 miles 
ill the interior of America. 

These Virginian fences^ as they are called, 
have a strange appearance to an Englishman, 
being large trees split into four or five pieces 
of perhaps thirty feet long, and then piled upon 
each other at a sufficient angle, to make the 
upright forks almost needless. I have seen 
tv/elve, even fourteen, of these rude beams one 
above another ; a sure sign that wood is of no 
value, and that a little ground more or less is of 
no manner of consequence. 

There are several commodious taverns along 
the road, and civilization is making giant strides 
in every direction of what was very recently a 
wilderness. Trenton is in a rich meadow, wa- 
tered by a rivulet, and is a larger village than 
usually met with so far from the canal and more 
frequented routes, but the Falls are still two 
miles and a half farther in the woods, where, 
to my utter astonishment, T found an hotel con- 
taining every comfort and luxury that may attract 
the sunnner tourists. 

A deep and narrow ravine of dark lime rock, 
the precipitous sides of which looked almost as 
if regularly built of rounded stones, while the 
tops and fissures were thickly overgrown with 
cedar, fir, and various shrubs, contains four 
diflcreut falls, all very pleasing, but two more 



55 

particularly so from their height and sheet of 
water. A hut for refreshments has been erected 
on a crag above the principal cascade, the 
streaai of which may be fifty yards wide^ and 
pours down with great violence a large body of 
water. The height is probably thirty feet_, partly 
unbroken and partly discovering the rock ; the 
torrent then rushes over several smooth slabs, 
which strongly resemble artificial steps, and 
again falls thirty or forty feet, forming one suc- 
cession of rapids and whirlpools to the next 
leap. 

The whole scene is highly picturesque, infi- 
nitely more so than the Cohoes, but it still wants 
those accompaniments of vast masses of mis- 
shapen rock, and aged oaks stretching their 
mouldering trunks or boughs across the chasm, 
which so commonly gratify the eye among the 
rivulets in the west of England. 

The limestone at Trenton contains many va- 
rieties of shells and animals, of which the pro- 
prietor of the hotel has obtained a considerable 
collection; and I could not help reflecting while 
rambling far from the house amidst glens and 
woods so silent and so deserted, that less than 
thirty years ago my reveries would have pro- 
bably been broken by the yell, the tomahawk, 
and the scalping knife. 

I have certainly seen pigeons in tolerable 



56 

numbers in Canibridg-eshire and other places, 
but I never fully understood the import of a 
" flight of pigeons" till 1 came into the vicinity 
of Utica: they absolutely darkened the heavens, 
stretching for miles in one vast phalanx, till the 
eye could trace them no longer : men, women, 
and children turned out with guns, nets, sticks, 
and even stones. The multitude slaughtered 
was immense, and yet such were their numbers, 
that no diminution apparently took place. The 
flesh is good eating, and the whole time of their 
remaining in a neighbourhood is a jubilee for the 
inhabitants. 

Yours very truly. 



57 



LETTER V. 



INDIANS— MEALS WHEN TRAVELLING — DISCIPLINE OF JAILS- 
LAKES — FREEMASONS — ROCHESTER — DWELLINGS — LAW OF 
INHERITANCE— FALLS OF THE GENESEE RIVER. 



Rochester, Jane 1, 1827. 
DEAR , 

Here am I sitting in one of half a dozen ex- 
cellent hotels, with iced lemonade, as well as 
the whitest spermaceti candles before me, and 
in a town of 9000 inhabitants, a Birmingham in 
miniature, where seventeen years ago not one 
single tree had been felled by the axe. 

But I have hitherto given you a connected 
account of my movements in America, and will 
therefore return to Utica, from whence my last 
letter was dated. The Erie Canal there takes a 
long bend to the northward, through aguish 
swamps, which the increasing navigation is but 
just occasioning to be cleared and settled ; so I 
determined to avail myself of the stage coach, 
which speedily conveyed me past the flourishing 
villages of Hartford, Whitehouses, Westmore- 
land, and the large college of Hamilton, situated 
oil a fine rising ground. I must here mention, that 



58 

I have scarcely ever found an assemblage of a 
few houses in this state^ without cither a na- 
tional school or some establishment for edu- 
cation ; and the meeting of an inhabitant who 
does not understand reading, writing, and arith- 
metic, is a very rare occurrence indeed. 

On this route I first saw cultivated hops in 
America^ and remarked in numerous directions 
small rivulets, which afforded great facility for 
water power ; an advantage this industrious 
people have eagerly turned to account in saw- 
mills^ corii-mills, factories of cotton, woollen, 
paper, and oil. Vernon is perhaps the most 
eligible site in all that neighbourhood^, is well 
built and rapidly increasing, but westward of it, 
the v.'ilderness abnost touches the road; culti- 
vation is scanty and badly conducted, and the 
aspect of every thing is changed for the worse. 

This, I was told, was owing to our being 
within a ^^ reservation," or tract of land still 
occupied by the Indians^ and we soon arrived at 
the poor-lookuig village of Oneida Castle. Near 
this spot was the great council grove of the tribe, 
and some few hundred families still fondly cling 
to the soil, but deprived of fishing, by the dams 
for machinery on the streams, and of hunting 
by the absolute scarcity of game ; they cut a 
most miserable appearance indeed : they are na- 
turally idle and lazy, hating agriculture, as is 



59 

clearly evinced by the state of their fences and 
farms, and pick up a scanty subsistence by 
making mats^ baskets^, moccaseens^ or other 
trifles. 

There is a church built for them at Oneida^ 
and a missionary appointed to preach in it on 
Sundays^ for they in general call themselves 
Christians ; and I understood, they not only 
conduct themselves with great propriety during 
divine service, but to induce them to learn 
English, one is ahvays appointed to retranslate 
the clergyman's Indian discourse, paragraph by 
paragraph, for the benefit of the white settlers 
who attend. 

I had no opportunity of ascertaining the above 
fact, or whether they really do sing the hymns 
in a peculiarly impressive and pleasing manner; 
but every person I conversed with about this 
remnant of the once powerful tribes of the 
Iroquois, or Five Nations, assured me of their 
unalterable honesty ; a stick placed across the 
door of a hut renders its contents sacred to them 
for months : I also heard they were quiet and 
peaceable when not intoxicated ; dreadfully 
afraid of a white man, who with a switch could 
drive away a group of them at any time, and 
that the women always refused any assistaiice 
during the pains of labour, retiring to the woods 
in summer and to a solitary hut in bad weather. 



60 

The state legislature has purchased up by 
far the larger portion of the different reserved 
lauds^ and now acts on a system of justice as 
well as prudent humanity. The interest of the 
price agreed on is paid annually to the Indian 
proprietors, who whenever they acquiesce in 
the measure, are also removed to new settle- 
ments on the shores of Green Bay and Lake 
Superior. 

Those I saw were of a dark copper colour, 
often strong and tall, but in dirty ragged 
dresses, half European, half Indian. Some of 
the young women w^ere decidedly pretty ; ge- 
nerally a blanket was wrapped round them, and 
a few had large ornaments, apparently of silver. 

Their infants were tightly bound in wrappers 
to a board, so as to have no possibility of 
moving, and then slung to their backs. 

The attempts to civilize Indijins and turn 
them to agriculture appear to me, as far as I 
have yet had an opportunity of observing or 
inquiring into, a complete failure; for in re- 
signing the better qualities of the savage, they 
have only adopted the most vicious propensities 
of their conquerors. They wander aljout a listless 
and despised race, reside in wretched log huts, 
and in dress and filth are like the worst descrip- 
tion of gipsies or tinkers : and really when in- 
dividuals assert that Europe only shews the re- 



61 

mains of better days, while here all is cheering* 
improvement, they should pause, and remember 
the living ruins which America exhibits. Both 
hemispheres have much to boast of, and no doubt 
also much deserving of animadversion. 

The Oneida Reservation is a fine tract of land ; 
a continued succession of liills and valleys, from 
one of the highest of which, I looked back over 
the level country to where the granite ridge 
crosses the Mohawk at Little Falls. It is a vast 
natural basin, and the conclusion seems rational 
of its having been another of those immense 
Iresh-water lakes still so connnon on this con- 
tinent. 

When the river Mohawk burst its rocky bar- 
rier, the soil became gradually draiued and 
covered with forest, while the waters receded to 
the present Lake Oneida, which is about forty 
miles long and eight or ten across. I am told 
here that such will probably be the case with 
Lake Erie some centuries hence, as the Falls of 
Niagara are gradually wearing away the lime- 
rock which obstructs their mighty torrent, and 
the surface of Ontario is below any part of the 
bed of its sister lake, which has been fathomed. 

Near the beautifully-situated village of Chit- 
tenningo are the remnants of a large petrified 
pine-tree, some specimens of which, with shells 
embedded in the wood, I obtained for your col- 



62 

lection. At the large and regularly-bnilt village 
of Maulins, the coach stopped for dinner ; and 
having now advanced so far into the interior, 
the following bills of fare may be taken as a 
fair specimen of the accommodations and style 
of living in this state. 

We had already made a hearty breakfast on 
veal cntlets, beef steaks, toasted ham, fish, both 
broiled and pickled, roasted potatoes, eggs by 
the dozen, tea, coffee, toast, rolls, excellent 
bread, with bntter and cream that would have done 
credit to a Devonshire larder, and all was served 
round by the landlord's daughters in blue and 
white china ; while a clean linen table-cloth, good 
knives, forks, spoons, cut-glass tumblers and 
castors, pickles, and the purest of salt, decorated 
the table. Our dinner consisted of joints of 
beef, mutton, and pork, pigeon and veal pies, 
asparagus, with other vegetables and salad, tarts, 
apple and peacli sweetmeats; while decanters of 
brandy and Hollands, with ciystal water in jugs, 
served to slake the thirst. The cider is some- 
times very good, but it is most frequently spoilt, 
for want of attention in picking out decayed 
apples from the press. 

Alas ! there were no French dishes ; no nice 
little "portions," exactly measured out lor one ; 
everv thin"* was ag"reeable to the honielv English 
phrase of cut and come again, and no reasonable 



63 

man could grumble at what was set before him. 
The charges are usually eighteen-pence or two 
shillings ; but those who wait neither expect nor 
ask for any remuneration. Tea or supper is 
much the same as the breakfast^ with the addition 
of plenty of cakes and a sort of apple mar- 
malade. 

The next village we came to was called 
Onondaga^ near which is another small settle- 
ment of Indians^ and what is much more interest- 
ing, several earthen entrenchments with ditches 
have been discovered, similar, it is said, to others 
that exist throughout the line of country which 
extends from the lakes along the banks of the 
Mississippi to New Orleans. This has opened a 
fine field for conjecture, because the Indians are 
said to have no traditions whatever about them, 
and they were evidently constructed by a people 
accustomed to a different sort of warfare. 

In the swampy ground a few miles to the 
northward and close to the Erie Canal, are the 
towns of Syracuse and Salina, with the fine salt- 
springs which supply their evaporation works : 
the situation is considered peculiarly aguish 
and unhealthy, but is found to improve as tlie 
country is cleared of wood. Tiie road from 
thence continued over a succession of small 
hills and valleys, varying much in the nature of 
the soil ; but cultivation is gradually advancing 



64 

into the fine forest wliicli in that part of the 
state covers five-sixths of the land. 

The well-built village of Skeneateless is most 
beautifully situated on a bank above a lake of 
the same name, commanding- a sheet of water 
fifteen miles long", and varying much in width : 
it is a lovely prospect; the banks sloping gently, 
and broken into numerous bays and woody head- 
lands, with cleared spaces for farms in various 
directions. Eight miles on this side of it, is 
the large town of Auburn, with the usual wide 
regular streets and foot pavements, and ex- 
cellent houses and inns ; but for some unac- 
countable reason, its site has been chosen so as 
not to enjoy a view of the neighbouring Lake 
Owasco. The coach stopped there for the 
night, having been sixteen hours in traversing 
the seventy-six miles from Utica ; not that we 
had travelled slow, considering the indifferent 
state of some portions of the road, but unfor- 
tunately we carried the mail, and were detained 
a tedious tune at each village post-office : for 
instead of having a small bag for each, which 
might be left without trouble, all the letters are 
thrown indiscrhnhiately into one large sack, and 
the passengers are detained while the whole are 
looked over again and again. 

The law, I was told, only allowed each post- 
master five minutes to sort his letters; but it 



65 

might just as well be silent on the subject, as 
from a quarter to lialf an hour is always thus 
occupied and lost. 

You are aware, that the different states of 
the Union are subdivided, like England, into 
counties, parishes, &c. Auburn is the chief 
town of Cayuga county, and not only contains 
the usual court-houses and gaols of its own ju- 
risdiction, but also- the state prison for the 
western section of New York, calculated to 
hold eleven hundred convicts. 

This establishment is extremely well conducted. 
Solitary confinement in cells seven feet by three 
and a half, and seven feet high, together with 
hard labour at various cheap and easily-learned 
trades, is the system adopted : the head gaoler 
has also discretionary power to inflict whippings 
on the refractory, and to put any prisoner who 
obstinately refuses to work into a sort of cistern 
with a pump in it, where the water gradually 
mounts, so that if the man will not employ him- 
self to throw it out he must drown. 

I asked if any convict ever had perished in 
this novel kind of bath, and was told it was not 
likely to happen ; as in the few cases when the 
water had been allowed to reach the neck, the 
prisoner had begun plying the pump-handle 
most furiously, roaring out for assistance in a 
terror that etiectually precluded the necessity 

F 



66 

of his undergoing the experiment a second 
time. 

The daily labour of a convict is never found 
to equal in results that of a free man, but the 
produce goes to the state towards defraying the 
ej^penses ; and it is said, that not only the ge- 
neral conduct of the prisoners is good, but many 
become permanently reformed. For my part, I 
think the Americans show great good sense in 
making their prisons places of deprivation,, hard 
work, and punishment ; instead of following our 
plan in England of rendering them most com- 
fortable and eligible houses of entertainment 
during the winter season. 

Westward of Auburn, I found the country 
more cleared and evidently longer settled than 
within the Oneida Reservation ; the stumps of 
trees were more generally grubbed up, and the 
orchards better stocked with peach, apple, 
plum, and pear trees, than any I had before 
seen. It seems to have been a rule with the 
settlers, to plant their hrst two or three cleared 
acres with fruit trees, sowing their wheat or 
other crops between the rows, as is practised 
in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and nothing 
could give a more cheerful aspect to their white 
houses. Flower gardens with roses, woodbines, 
and other creepers, so continually seen about 
English cottages, have not yet been introduced 



67 

here, and possibly the winters are too cold for 
such plants. 

The road passes Lake Cayuga on a low 
wooden bridge or causeway one mile and a 
quarter long, which is often damaged by the 
floating ice. This magnificent piece of water 
is forty miles in length, the shores low, but 
pleasingly indented; and not only are a good 
many sloops employed carrying timber^ flour, 
&c. from the diff"erent villages, but a steam- 
boat plies backwards and forwards from the 
bridge to the town of Ithaca. This last-named 
place is situated at the upper end of the lake, 
and from it they propose to cut a canal to the 
Susquehanna river, a distance of only thirty-one 
miles; when it will become of great importance, 
as commanding a water communication between 
lakes Erie, Ontario, and the Chesapeake. Not 
far from the town of Ithaca is a fine waterfall, 
well worth an excursion in the steam-boat to be 
visited. 

The country between the lakes Cayuga and 
Seneca is agreeably hilly, and the road runs 
not far from the navigable river which unites 
their waters. The village of Waterloo is larger 
and handsomer than usual, but is far eclipsed 
by the town of Geneva, which rises like an am- 
phitheatre above the expanded basin of the 
Seneca, whose limits extend thirty-five miles, 
by three or four wide. 

e 2 



68 

Geneva is two hundred miles west of Albany, 
and has a road through Ithaca direct to New 
York. Its population is between 3000 and 4000, 
many of whom are in tolerable affluence, and 
keep pleasure-boats on the lake. The streets 
are well built of brick houses^ as is also a large 
square ; and the college forms a conspicuous 
object on approaching from the eastward. 

The next place we arrived at, after a delight- 
ful drive of sixteen miles, was Canandaigua; 
which stands on a hill about a mile from the 
lake, and contains many really elegant-looking 
houses, each being surrounded by a garden; one 
of which, belonging to a Scotch gentleman, was 
better laid out and possessed more varieties of 
flowers than I had previously seen in America. 

It is the county town of Ontario; and the whole 
republic is in a ferment about the disa}jpear- 
ance of a man named Morgan who was confined 
in its gaol. The popular outcry is, that he has 
been murdered by the freemasons for betraying 
their secrets : and so strange is the infatuation, 
that it is insisted he was drowned at the junction 
of the Niagara river and Lake Ontario, a dis- 
tance of one hundred and fifty miles, when the 
deep lake close at hand would have answered 
the purpose so much better. 

Several respectable individuals have been 
arrested on suspicion, and refused bail ; while 
Morgan's widow is making a fortune by the 



69 

publication at Baltimore of various pamphlets. 
Orders have been sent to drag the water near 
Fort Niagara for the body; but many persons 
suppose Morgan is quietly living in concealment 
on the proceeds of his alleged martyrdom. Be 
this as it may, the poor freemasons are suf- 
fering much obloquy, and in some instances 
have been grossly attacked. 

I have met here a fine young man, a gunsmith, 
with half his lower lip bit off, and marks of teeth 
on his cheek, fingers, nose, &c. He tells me, 
that passing along the Erie Canal near Rome, a 
few days back, the boat was detained ; and to 
pass away his time, he walked into a house 
where he saw a number of persons assembled, 
who proving to be freemasons he soon quitted, 
but was attacked in the street by half a dozen 
fellows who kicked, bit, and beat him shame- 
fully. 

" However," continued he, " I marked the 
man who eat my lip, for I seized him by the 
hair, and getting my thumb in the corner of his 
eye, I ''gouged' him." I really gave a cry of 
horror, at the idea of such a monstrous barbarity, 
which the narrator noticed by saying, " I don't 
mean to defend the action, but I did not take 
his eye quite out, only poked it half way from 
its socket ; and let me tell you, when a man is 
attacked by half a score, and ill-used as I was, 
he is not over nice in his mode of escape." 



Before taking leave of the district of these 
lakes, 1 cannot help remarking", that it is in my 
opinion the most diversified and eligible tract of 
country in America. There are, it is true, no 
romantic rocks and precipices ; few of the hills 
can be called high ; and much of the soil is poor 
when compared with the alluvial flats ; but then 
it is a healthy, ever-varying scene of woods, and 
slopes, and water ; possesses several sulphur 
or burning springs ; is situated in the heart of a 
most powerful state ; abounds in fish ; and where 
the partridge or native quail would soon,if a little 
care was taken, become numerous. It was in 
this vicinity that the Indians of the Iroquois or 
Five Nations had fixed their principal settlements 
some time previous to the revolutionary war ; 
and as they most zealously espoused the part of 
the British government, they committed several 
horrible acts of devastation on the neighbour- 
ing villages. To revenge which, and prevent 
future incursions, General Sullivan marched 
with an army of 5000 men, defeated the savages, 
and having utterly destroyed their habitations, 
drove them far to the westward. 

Since that period the Mohawks and their con- 
federates, once the most powerful tribe in North 
America, have almost become extinct as a 
nation. 

The thirty miles from Canandaigua to Roches- 
ter, is rapidly becoming settled and cultivated ; 



71 

several villaofes have been formed, and the road 
is undergoing repair, which, by the bye, it cer- 
tainly needed. 

I told you at the commencement of this letter, 
that Rochester was quite a new town ; the oldest 
person born in it being only seventeen years of 
age. It owes its rapid increase and importance 
to the rich agricultural country of Genesee, the 
Erie Canal, and the great water power — or, as 
the inhabitants term it, '' privilege of water" — 
of the river which passes through it. 

The streets are laid out wide and regular, so 
that improvements to any extent may take place 
hereafter ; but at present the houses have been 
run up in such a hurry, as to have a most strag- 
gling appearance ; while the stumps of trees are 
still sticking two or three feet out of the ground 
between them. From the attention show'n in the 
cultivation of small gardens, and evergreens 
against the dwellings, I should imagine many of 
the people were newly-arrived emigrants ; and 
that idea is further strengthened by the numer- 
ous manufactories of different articles recently 
established. 

The generality of houses throughout the state 
of New York are of neat planks, painted white, 
with green Venetian blinds to the windows. The 
smallest have usually the door in the centre, and 
a sash window on each side, without any other 



72 

than the ground floor. The second size have a 
floor above, and are sometimes double ; while 
the largest have two windows on each side the 
door. It is rare to see a house carried higlier, 
except those built in the towns, of brick ; and 
should more room be required in the country, 
wings and out-houses are added. 

The cost, I was informed, varied from £50 to 
£250, doors and windows included ; and though 
nothing can look more forlorn and wretched than 
an old unpainted wooden house ; yet every 
dwellino- in these western countries is of so 
recent a date, that all are clean, comfortable, 
and cheerful ; even the few log huts I have 
passed were plastered and had small windows. 

The roofs are covered with wooden shingles, 
cut into sizes about as big as slates ; and the 
interior of the houses are not only often papered 
and painted, but by no means deficient in furni- 
ture. I am informed the inn I am at is not the 
best in the town, but it is both large and clean, 
and I never in England had a better four-post 
bed and chamber conveniences. 

I ought, in fairness, to tell you, that all my 
American acquaintances declare my tour to have 
been much more comfortable and agreeable, 
because it was undertaken so early in the sea- 
son. In fact, 1 heard at New York and other 
cities^ that the number of travellers in July, 



73 

August, and September, was so great, as fre- 
quently to cause several to be put into the same 
bed-room, besides other annoyances. 

I relate things to you as I found them ; and 
have certainly experienced nothing but ci\ility, 
excellent accommodation, and amusement, 
throughout my excursion. I have stated in 
a former letter, that those who visit the interior 
of this republic must conform to the customs 
of the people ; for if they expect post-horses, 
much individual attendance from waiters, or 
dinners to be served up in private apartments, 
they will meet with nothing but disappointments, 
mortifications, and ridicule. 

Visitors to Italy soon become reconciled to 
discomforts, and fleas and vermin ; because they 
can eat delicious ice and macaroni, see splendid 
galleries of sculpture and paintings, and enjoy 
the sun. Here, where there are an infinite 
number of good things, it is only requisite to 
forget two or three luxuries almost peculiar to 
Great Britain. 

Rochester, besides the shops and etceteras of 
a bustling, trading town, has some neat sulphur 
baths, and a museum. These latter are very 
frequently met with in the United States ; and 
although the intrinsic value of the contents of 
each is trifling, yet they serve to diffuse a gene- 
ral taste and knowledge of natural history among 



H 

all ranks of society ; and are the means of pre- 
serving many fossils and petrifactions which 
would otherwise be lost. 

How often is it lamented in England^ that 
Roman tesselated pavements^ baths^ coins, tombs, 
and other antiquities^ have been destroyed^ 
throug-h the ignorance or carelessness of their 
owners. Now I don't think a similar circum- 
stance would occur here, because almost every 
individual has seen things of alike nature valued 
and taken care of in their local museums. 

It is pleasing in tliese vast countries constantly 
to see near the better farms, tomb-stones and 
other mementos of the dead. They were erected 
when no church, perhaps no neighbour, was to 
be found within leagues ; and are generally 
placed on a gentle rise, deeply shaded by over- 
hanging trees. 

The quantity of wheat produced in the Genesee 
district is almost incredible : I heard, and can 
scarcely credit the fact, that one person shipped 
130,000 barrels of flour ; principally for the 
British West India Islands. 

A gentleman named AVadsworth, owns 40,000 
acres of land in this neighbourhood, of which 
between .5000 and 0000 are in the highest state of 
cultivation: he has no children ; but by the laws 
of the states, his fortune must be equally divided 
among his five nephews and nieces. 



;5 

Some wealthy citizens are beg-inning to evade 
this enactment^ by making their intended heir 
independent in their lifetime ; and he has also 
his share of the residue at his relation's death : 
so desirous are men to leave their posterity 
richer and more powerful than their neighbours, 
that an equality of goods would seem to be as 
inconsistent witli the bias of the human mind, as 
an equality of intellect is contraiy to the laws 
of nature. 

This distribution of property may be neces- 
sary and advantageous under a republican form 
of government ; but it is evidently erroneous 
policy in a monarchy. Tn France^ for instance, 
what can such a law tend to, but the impoverish- 
ment of the nobility ; and making them sub- 
servient to the court and minister, instead of 
being a barrier between king and people, as 
they ought to be. In Germany, where the titles 
are given to all, and the wealth only to one, mat- 
ters are much worse. 

In short, there is no constitution framed on 
more intelligent principles than that of England ; 
or which practically works better. Yon see 
I am still a genuine John Bull ; though I do find 
some things to admire and praise out of the 
narrow limits of my native country. 

The river Genesee is about 150 yards across 
at Rochester ; and just below the bridge, falls 



76 

over a mass oflimestoiie, ninety feet perpendicu- 
lar. This cataract is rendered more beautiful 
by the convex form of the rock, and a small 
island which extends to the very brink of the 
precipice, where you can stand while the torrent 
rushes down on each side of you, but it is by no 
means a good point of view. 

The fi\ll would be extremely picturesque had 
not the timber on its immediate banks, and on 
the island above-mentioned, been cut down ; 
but settlers in a wilderness of woods have a 
natural antipathy to the sight of a tree, and the 
axe levels all without distinction. There are 
many factories on its western side ; and to the 
east a saw-mill actually overhangs the gulph. 
On a projecting crag behind this building I could 
almost touch the w ater ; and can only compare 
its appearance, when rushing over, to a torrent 
of flakes of falling snow. The beams of a setting 
sun shining through the liquid curtain, and the 
ever-chanofino' hues of the rainbow formed on 
the rising spray, had a fine efl'ect. 

A ramble down the banks of the stream, which 
are very steep and woody, is highly interesting, 
as new and pleasing views of the cataract can 
conthuially be obtained through the foliage ; and 
at the village of Carthage, one mile and a half 
below, the river takes another leap of sixteen or 
twenty feet, after which it tumbles down a sue- 



77 

cession of small ledges^ eighty feet higli^, in a 
most grand and imposing sheet of foam. This 
is the finest scene of the kind I ever yet wit- 
nessed ; and much enhanced by fishermen below 
with their nets and liooks. 

The accompanying rocks are of a reddish 
sandstone ; the river tliere becomes perfectly 
smooth, and from twelve to fourteen feet deep 
the remahiiug six miles to Lake Ontario; so 
that sloops come up, and by means of an in- 
clined plane from tlie cliff, are loaded with salt,, 
flour^ Virginian tobacco, and other goods for the 
Canadian market. 

I remain yours very truly, 8cc. 



78 



LETTER VI. 



RIDGEWAY — SETTLERS IN THE WILDERNESS— LEWISTON — BUF- 
FALO — LAKE ERIE— OHIO — YANKEES— MR. OWEN'S SETTLE- 
MENT — COMPLAINTS OF AGRICULTURISTS — LAM'S — LITTLE 
CHEERFULNESS, 



Falls of Niagara, June 6, 1827. 
DEAR , 

Few spots in the world can command such a 
sublime — such an awful prospect^ as now meets 
my eye from the balcony of the hotel where I 
am sitting. A river two or three miles broad 
is suddenly contracted to less than half that ex- 
panse ; and then rolling over abrupt and steep 
shallows,, in a most tremendous agitation of 
whirlpools^ eddies, and contending waves, it 
bounds over the precipice in one deep and 
solemn roar. 

As I am now, however, in Canada, and have 
found by experience that the grandeur of the 
scene before me becomes more perceptible to 
my senses the longer I am acquainted with it ; 
I will, as far as I can, aflford you the same oppor- 
tunity for reflection, by first finishing my de- 



79 

scription of the opposite state of New York, and 
then reverting to the far-famed cataract. 

On quitting Rochester the road was formed 
for eighty miles along a mo st extraordinary 
natural causeway, called the Ridge, composed of 
sand and small gravel, which is not above ten 
or twenty yards wide at top, and perhaps twelve 
feet in elevation above the rich alluvial country, 
to which it slopes very gradually on each side. 
This was^ without doubt, a former boundary of 
Lake Ontario, from which it is now distant about 
ten miles ; and two miles farther south is another 
boundary — a cliff of limestone 150 feet high, 
running in a parallel direction, to where the 
Niagara separates it from Queenston heights. 

That section of country has been but recently 
settled ; yet Parma, Clarkson, Gaines, Oak 
Orchard, Ridgeway, and other villages, are 
fast springing up : all have churches with lofty 
wooden spires ; and many of the houses have 
the English paling before them, with fine single 
trees left standing to afford shade, and hives of 
bees in the gardens. I was told they were lately 
come over from " the Old Country." 

The coach quitted the Ridgeway for a few 
miles, to cut off a great angle ; and I there had 
an opportunity of seeing the wilderness or 
*^ bush," untouched by man, and in all its solemn 
magnificence. 



80 

The narrow road, formed of logs and earth, 
shaking under the slow motion of the wheels, 
gave a long straight opening through the trees, 
and disclosed a ribbon of blue sky. To the 
right and left it seemed as if a fowl could not 
make way ; so thick was it, indeed, as to check 
the rank vegetation natural to damp swampy 
ground. The forest is composed of a variety of 
species. Oak, elm, beech, niciple, and other 
deciduous trees, generally cover tlie better soil; 
cedar and larch are found in the most marshy 
places ; the hemlock-fir, and pine, in rocky 
sandy tracks. The loftiest timber may be 120 
or 130 feet high ; below it is another growth of 
seventy or eighty feet; a third of thirty or forty 
feet ; and the interstices filled up with shrubs, 
brushwood, &tc. 

Into this solitary wild of woods one or two 
poor settlers had just brought the axe : the 
sight to me was novel and disheartening. A man 
having made his bargain as to price per acre, 
with the government, or proprietor of some spot 
he takes a fancy to, creeps into the thicket with 
his hatchet, and begins his laborious task. Down 
fall the trees, some of two or three feet in 
diameter, covering the whole space with their 
trunks and boughs; the roots and stumps remain- 
ing in the ground io rot. Some of the more 
convenient logs he drags to the centre ; and. 



81 

piling them one upon another, builds a square 
hut; filling up the openings with mud_,and leaving 
places for a door, and one or perhaps two light- 
holes. Other logs form the floor and slophig 
roof; w hich latter is covered with rushes, boughs, 
turf, or any thing he can get. 

His small stock of money purchases a bed, 
kettle, and some crockery, which most probably 
the bad weather and ague now make hidispensa- 
bly necessary to him : perhaps he has no near 
neighbours ; or if he has, they are hardened and 
indifferent to misfortunes they have themselves 
undergone and surmounted. 

If the settler is fortunate enough to escape or 
recover from the fever, he makes a log zigzag 
fence round his open ground, and burns the resi- 
due of the fallen timber ; then hoes between the 
stumps, which if beech or maple, will decay in four 
or five years, but if oak and chesnut, remain sound 
for ten. His fruit trees he plants at regular 
intervals, between the roots of the ancient occu- 
piers of the land ; and sows his wheat, and pota- 
toes, &c. under his orchard. He then turns to the 
improvement of his house and fence, makes rude 
tables and chairs, and learns to become a car- 
penter. 

When twenty-five acres of land are thus 
cleared, he can support a large family in toler- 
able abundance ; but should he have a hundred, 
he is a thriving man. This, however, is an 

a 



82 

affair of years, and the purchase-money in nine 
cases out of ten has not been paid. 

Soon after the successful termination of the 
Revohition^ a number of hidividuals_, mostly Dutch, 
formed themselves into the " Holland Company," 
and purchased, I believe, some millions of acres, 
in the most western division of the state of New 
York. The conditions on which they resold 
the land to settlers have not been considered 
sufficiently eligible ; and consequently very 
little, comparatively speaking, has been cleared 
and cultivated. 

The terms are from two to three pounds per 
acre, according to soil ; and if the money is not 
paid down, no interest is demanded for the first 
two years, but six per cent, the following six. 
At the end of these eight years, if the cash is 
not forthcoming, compound interest is added 
to the principal, and another six years is al- 
lowed ; after which period, if still unable to pay 
the accumulated debt, the occupier forfeits his 
farm altogether, and is turned adrift. 

This is certainly fair according to law; but 
I should have thought no man who had seen the 
spot before the axe had been called in, witnessed 
the industry necessary to clear and drain it, or 
observed, as I have, the tenants of one or two 
log-huts, stretched on their beds with an ague, 
could find resolution to eject the debtor. 

The resident agent of the Holland Company 



83 

is an elderly Scotchman, and a hard taskmaster 
he appears to be. He travelled some distance 
along* the Ridgeway m the coach, for the amiable 
purpose of " prosecuting according to law" 
some children, who had thrown stones through 
his windows and serenaded him with yells, be- 
cause he had turned their father out of his farm. 
He is a long-visaged, crabbed-looking person- 
age, with enormous overhanging eyebrows; and 
told us with much glee how he had found out 
the perpetrators, and how he would make them 
smart for it. 

A respectable farmer in vain endeavoured to 
deprecate his wrath, by saying he had known the 
debtor many years, as a sober, hard-working 
man, bringing up a large family ; for the old 
fellow declared he would have law, if law was 
to be got, and that the tenant was a poor devil 
without a cent, and out he should go. This 
harshness so exasperated the young man who 
had '^'^only half poked out" his assailant's eye at 
Rome, and who was also a passenger in the ve- 
hicle, that I thought he would certainly have rob- 
bed the Scotchman of his shaggy eye-shades; but 
fortunately we had nothing beyond a wordy war. 

I have since heard at Buffalo, that in the far- 
thest parts of Ohio and other back settlements, 
where the arm of the law does not reach so 
surely, families are not turned out quite in so 

G 2 



84 

unceremonious a manner; itmifflit be dansrerous. 
A compromise there takes place ; the tenant 
gives up the land he can't pay for, and the 
landlord gives him 500 or 600 dollars for his 
improvements and labour, log-hut, &c/J, With 
this sum he goes \\ cstward, and becomes a pur- 
chaser ; while his late tenement is sold to the 
first emigrant who arrives with enough money 
to commence comfortably. Thus, according to 
my information, it is not very common to find a 
man actually owning and occupying land which 
he cleared himself. 

My coach companion the " Gouger," gave me 
to understand, in the course of conversation, that 
he had lived many years in Upper Canada ; and 
was then on his way from New England to in- 
form the disaffected, that if they chose to make 
a stand against the British Government, there 
were from 10,000 to 20,000 Yankees quite tired 
of their houses, and ready to join them. I na- 
turally asked if the Canadians were much op- 
pressed ; and he replied, '' Oh, no ! we pay 
neither tithes nor taxes, only a nominal rent of one 
penny in twenty shillings, and arc, in fact, quite 
favoured and spoilt ; but it is the surest way of 
preserving those privileges to kick up a row now 
and then." 

I had heard at New York and other towns on 
my journey, that Upper Canada was in a state of 



85 

almost open insurrection ; and now I am actually 
in itj I can only wonder at such gross exaggera- 
tions being prevalent. But a circumstance re- 
lative to this colony, which has come under my 
own observation, will possibly engage much of 
your consideration. 

I have met some highly respectable persons, 
who, after enumerating the various advantages 
of Canada, ended by stating, *' We left it how- 
ever for the States, because in it there is no en- 
couragement for exertion and industry ; every 
one has enough, and will not labour for more ; 
which occasions an apathy and listlessness to us 
intolerable. Here, we have taxation and other 
rates to provide for; and yet are not only more 
comfortable, but gain more money likewise." 

Lewiston is 320 miles from Albany, and on 
the eastern bank of the river Niagara, which is 
rapid even there, although seven miles below 
the Falls. At that place the sloops from Lake 
Ontario unload, to allow of the land portage 
towards Lake Erie ; as the cataract impedes all 
further navigation. 

I was surprised not to hear the roar of the 
water in the stillness of the night, at so short a 
distance, but the wind was contrary ; and next 
morning it was distinct enough. From Lewiston the 
road winds up the limestone cliff I have described 
as the ancient boundary of Lake Ontario ; ou the 



top of which is an extensive view over a flat sur- 
face of woods ; and it is evident the river has 
worn through the portion of the ridge which was 
joined to Queenston heights, liaving no doubt, 
at one period, formed its cataract at this spot, 
which has gradually washed away the softer 
rock, and thus receded. 

The road next passes a lofty precipice, im- 
pending over the now raging stream, and noted 
for the destruction of a party driven over by the 
French during the colonial wars. Close to it 
some person has had the good taste to cut an 
opening in the wood, which affords a distant, but 
highly picturesque view of the Falls. 

At the thriving village of Manchester is a 
good hotel kept by a General ; but the twenty- 
three miles from thence to Buffalo, is along a truly 
infamous road, made of trunks of trees, and not 
in sight of the river, but through a thick wilder- 
ness, in which black bears, w^olves, and rattle- 
snakes, are not unfrequent; and quails, also 
black squirrels, are very numerous. 

Buffalo is a handsome and improving towi^^ 
just above the north-east end of Lake Eric, and 
has been entirely rebuilt since the late war ; 
which accounts for the streets being unpaved, 
and want of footways. It contains 4000 inha- 
bitants, two churches, a theatre, town-hall, and 
several excellent inns ; among which, the one 



87 

kept by Ratliburn, although constructed of wood, 
is as extensive and elegant as can easily be met 
with in any part of Europe. 

I was often at a loss to comprehend how such 
numerous houses of public entertainment could 
exist with profit, in every little town of the 
republic ; but it was explained to me, that the 
proprietors not only possessed large farms, but 
their houses served the three purposes of lodg- 
ings, hotels, and mere eating-taverns. Thus at 
Rathburn's, above forty persons have hired 
apartments by the year, in preference to having 
the trouble of servants and establishments ; and 
above a hundred sit down daily to his dinnci'-table ; 
so that with casual travellers and visitors to the 
newspaper room, the most liberal landlord can 
gain a livelihood. 

The Erie Canal joins the lake at the village of 
Black Rock, about three miles north of Buffalo ; 
but as the stream of water at that point rushes 
swiftly into the river Niagara, the cut has been 
continued to the latter place. In its vicinity 
also, is a large settlement of the half-civilized 
Indians ; and another is between Lockport and 
Lewiston. 

Buffalo will certainly become, at some future 
period, one of the most important towns in 
America ; for from the light-house erected at 
the mouth of its creek, the navigation of tlie 



88 

fresh-water seas to the west and north-west is 
said to be unimpeded by rapids or other ob- 
structions for some thousands of miles. Lake 
Erie itself is two hundred and seventy miles by 
sixty broad^ and only two hundred feet deep ; 
while the surface of that of Ontario is three 
hundred and thirty feet below the Falls of Ni- 
agara. 

Steam-boats and sloops are continually con- 
veying merchandise on Lake Erie; and some of 
the sailors insisted, that a tide of a few inches 
was perceptible at all seasons. A road runs 
from Buffalo to Pittsburg, on the Ohio river, 
thus opening an internal communication with 
New Orleans on the Gulf of Mexico, and it is 
even talked of cutting a canal in that direction. 

While in Buflalo, I made very particular in- 
quiries concerning the rapidly improving states 
of Ohio and Indiana, the former of which has 
sprung up to be the fourth, if not the third in 
the Union. They are represented as vast woody 
plains of a rich alluvial soil, but with very little 
wholesome water, owing to the sluggish nature 
of the rivers and creeks, which likew ise deprives 
the settlers of many " privileges " for machinery. 
Their population has been swelled not only by 
new-comers from Europe, but from Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, and other parts of New 
England, where the people have lately been 



89 

seized with such a mania for emigration, as to 
attract the attention of their local governments : 
like young birds^ which as soon as fledged and 
old enough, quit their nests, and forget " kith 
and kind : " so the Yankees, as their countrymen 
call them, are found scattered over every section 
of the Union as pedlars, hucksters, quacks, and 
speculators. 

They are a shrewd, intelligent race, much 
more talkative and inquisitive than their neigh- 
bours ; and if the accounts of the southern states 
are to be credited, where Yankees are hated 
and accused of exciting disturbances among the 
slaves, they know how to drive a hard bargain, 
and have fairly jostled the Jews out of the re- 
public. 

From a variety of anecdotes related in ri- 
dicule of their parsimonious habits, I shall 
select the following. A Yankee being far lo 
the west, with his little cart of pedlery, found 
the wheels wanted greasing, and stopped at the 
next house for the purpose ; where he was sup- 
plied so abundantly with the needful, that he 
not only finished his job and rej^lenished his 
grease-pot, but still had a great deal left. 
After looking at the residue a few moments, he 
turned to the good-natured giver, and said, '' I 
calculate they may want some of this fat at the 



90 

next hut, so I will just step over, and see what 
they will give me for it." 

They are chiefly descended from the secta- 
rians wlio fled from persecution in the seven- 
teenth century ; and some of the curious puri- 
tanical names are still existing among them. 

Of the philanthropic Mr. Owen's settlement, 
called New Harmony, 1 have heard but a so-so 
account. It appears, in truth, a most inhar- 
monious society; for the healthy and indus- 
trious do not relish that entire community of 
goods and produce, which causes them to work 
hard day after day for the purpose of feeding 
the idle and sickly ; and it is therefore splitting 
into almost as many divisions as there are fa- 
milies, each taking care, while following the 
old system, to benefit as much as possible by 
the expenditure Mr. Owen has incurred in en- 
deavouring to introduce a new one. 

The farmers I have met with all declare, that 
though they have abundance to eat and drink, 
for any number of children, yet such is at 
present the low value of produce, they cannot 
gain any money; and that a man who has to 
realize the price of his land, in addition to 
earning a comfortable living, must find it a 
most diflicult task, under even favourable cir- 
cumstances, as he cannot convert his flour. 



91 

sheep, and cows into cash. The late quarrel 
therefore with Great Britain, which excludes 
them from the West India islands is very un- 
popular ; and yet as they now have the privilege 
of bonding- their flour in Canada, the loss must 
chiefly fall on the shipping' interests at Boston, 
Charleston, Baltimore, &c. : for it is notorious, 
that hitherto where the British flag* was seen 
once in those seas, the American was met with 
ten times ; their vessels being freighted with 
flour, fresh meat and poultry, packed in ice, 
eggs, kept sweet for any period by being covered 
with salt, and other provisions. This valuable 
trade is now lost to them, because their govern- 
ment persists in levying heavy import duties on 
foreign goods, in order to encourage the home 
manufactures. 

The overwhelming influence in the United 
States is decidedly that of the agriculturists; and 
they assert continually, " If we could only have a 
market in England or elsewhere for our flour, 
our cotton, tobacco, &c. we should never think 
of employing ourselves in manufactures; for we 
had rather earn the value of two shillings on 
our own farms than two doUars in close build- 
ings, as the wages of a master.^' 

Law is as plentiful in the American republic 
as in Great Britain, and the people seem more 
litigious. It is a tluiving trade, and in almost 



92 

every village^ the words '^ Attorney at Law 
Office,'^ written in large characters against two 
or three houses, infuses a reasonable degree of 
terror into the passer-by. It is singular, when 
independence was obtained, the opportunity of 
getting rid of the old complicated system of 
jurisprudence was allowed to be lost ; but jt 
proves, I think, there were but few disinterested 
patriots beside Washington ; and that the lawyers 
associated with him were much more assiduous 
in securing the loaves and fishes, than in rec- 
tifying errors which had arisen from time and 
obsolete usages. 

Some few changes were made, and perhaps 
the most important, the restricting the award of 
death to three or four crimes only ; so that the 
perpetrators, if discovered, are certain of meet- 
ing their reward. We have, I think, in Britain 
sixty or seventy difierent cases in which a like 
sentence is recorded ; and then to obviate the 
reproach, that our laws were written with blood 
instead of ink, not above one out of three hun- 
dred condenmed to capital punishment is left 
for execution. 

The Anglo-Americans still have however their 
John Does, Richard Roes, and other legal fic- 
tions ; and judges who are quite deaf and almost 
childish from age, are still allowed to exercise 
their high functions, because there is no ade- 



93 

quale pension appropriated to their retirement 
from office. 

Gentlemen of large landed property are some- 
times distinguished by the name of their estate, 
wiiich sounds very aristocratical ; and the title 
of squire is very commonly given to the owner 
of the best house, but whether as the justice of 
peace or not, I could not ascertain. By the 
bye, I am told, very strange sort of characters, 
and men whose attainments are not suited to 
the situation, sometimes get appointed magis- 
trates in the republic. 

It may be so : for I know a wealthy county 
in England where, since the obloquy thrown on 
the unpaid magistracy, and Lord Sidmouth's 
neglect in supporting gentlemen who had ac- 
cepted the commission, the almost only active 
member of the bench is so illiterate, as to have 
written the following mandate against a culprit, 
Hugh Hughes : — '' U'll take U Us, an hav im 
well wiped." 

In those parts of the Union I have visited, 
the people appeared as healthy and rol)ust as 
with us, and the only peculiarity I remarked 
was, the number who had weak eyes and wore 
spectacles. 

That they have every reason to be a happy 
people, and really are so, I think no candid 
traveller will deny. But they certainly are not 



94 

cheerful, seldom laughing or talking with each 
other or strangers,, unless first spoken to ; and 
the drivers of coaches or masters of boats, al- 
though in the employment of the same person, 
rarely notice each other in passing. 

The French say, John Bull sometimes becomes 
lively and good-humoured when well jolted in 
a stage : but such is not the case with these re- 
publicans, who are so intent on calculations of 
profit and loss, as to have no time for commu- 
nicativeness. 

One circumstance I cannot forgive, the un- 
grateful indifference, nay oblivion, with which 
all classes of the community treat the memory 
of Washington : he still has some admirers un- 
doubtedly, and Boston as well as Baltimore has 
a monument to his honour. But if it were not 
that the Federative city is called Washington, 
I do not believe his name would be uttered iii 
society from year's end to year's end. 

Neither do the revolutionary soldiers appear 
to have been treated with liberality, according 
to the statements which are frequently inserted 
in the newspapers ; for though some of the 
oificers got grants of land instead of their 
arrears of pay, the privates received no renni- 
neration. What a contrast to the splendid re- 
ception and gifts bestowed on the Marquis 
Lafayette ! 



95 

On quitting- Buffalo, I proceeded to the neat 
village at Black Rock, and got into a ferry- 
boat, which is impelled by four horses treadhig 
on a horizontal wheel, which gives motion to 
the paddles ; but such was the rapidity of the 
river, that though not, I think, half a mile wide 
in that part, the boat was carried three quarters 
of a mile down the stream in crossing. 

I landed on the Canadian shore, close to the 
ruins of Fort Erie, and found a neat coach ready 
to convey the passengers along an excellent 
road to this hotel. 

Yours most truly, &c. 



96 



LETTER VII. 



FALLS OF NIAGARA — TUMULUS OF SKELETONS — LATH WAR- 
ANECDOTES — INDIAN WARFARE. 



Fulls of Niayara, June 12, 1827- 
DEAR , 

Those who visit this wonder of nature^ should 
certainly take up their residence on the Cana- 
dian side, in one of the two capital hotels built 
in situations commanding views of the torrent. 

I doubt whether the most faithful delineation 
with the pencil could give any tolerably just 
idea of the mighty scene below ; at least, those 
sketches I have seen are stiff, unpleashig, and 
unworthy of the subject. Nor is it easy to 
write a description, and I must beg your in- 
dulgence before I make the attempt, for if 1 
give way to the feelings excited by what I now 
see from my window, you will laugh at me as 
an enthusiast; and as I cannot shake off those 
feelings, I find it difficult to embody them in 
proper language. 

Wlien I first arrived at the cataract I was 



97 

disappointed : I could not tell why, or what 
ideas my imagination had formerly conjured up; 
but the breadth of the object took off' from its 
apparent height; and then its being curved in- 
stead of straight, seemed to diminish its vast- 
ness, and the fall was not in one expanse, but 
divided by an island of some extent. The 
longer I gazed, however, the more accustomed 
my eye became to the magnificence of the scene; 
and the more capable of appreciating the various 
beauties of the parts, and the sublimity of the 
whole. 

On the eastern side a small stream has been 
separated from the larger by a mass of rock, 
and forms a fall called Montmorenci. It is 
between the two great ones, and on so grand a 
scale is every thing around, I for some time 
considered it a mere silvery ribbon, undeserving 
of much notice ; but on further examination, I 
acknowledged that the Falls of the Clyde would 
■appear \ery insignificant by its side. 

Stairs are constructed against the precipitous 
cliffs ; foot-paths, seats, and ferry-boats have 
been provided; in short, all that could gratify 
Ihe most insatiable curiosity, and I made ample 
use of these conveniences in my rambles, find- 
ing at each point some new beauties to admire. 

When the sun was bright, I have seen three 
distinct rainbows playing their various hues on 

H 



98 

the ever-changing form of the milk-white mist ; 
which sometimes towers high into the air, at 
others is driven down the stream, forming a 
transparent or impenetrable curtain, according 
to the denseness of the vapour. In thick or 
rainy weather a gloom overspreads the whole 
prospect; and at night, if the moon shines out, 
it lends a softness and indistinctness to every 
object, which is quite charming. But on every 
occasion the same deep, solemn roar, unvarying 
and unchangeable, tells that the accumulated 
waters of the western regions are pouring be- 
fore me. 

Very soon after quitting Lake Erie, the river 
is divided into two channels by some large 
islands, but the streams unite again about four 
miles above the cataract, forming a considerable 
expanse, broken by woody headlands and inlets. 
The water is clear as crystal, very deep, and 
supposed to continue so to within less than a 
mile of the precipice; while the surface is smooth 
and silent, flowing onward with a swiftness 
quite appalling to those who have seen the gulf 
so near at hand. 

Several individuals are recorded to have been 
carried down the current within the last few 
years; some by having attempted to row across 
the river a few miles above, when they became 
terrified at the rapid descent of their boat, and 



99 

lost all further power of exertion; others by 
falling asleep in their canoes^ which by some 
accident got adrift and floated down. It is as- 
serted;, that even the small steam-boat which 
plies from the Chippewa Creek to Fort Erie had 
a very narrow escape last summer. 

As the immense moving body of water ap- 
proaches the rocks which render its bed quite 
shallow;, it takes a bend, and becomes much 
narrowed; so that its endeavour to force a pas- 
sage over the impediment it now meets, is at- 
tended with a violence unexampled, and a noise 
almost deafening : and the rocks being of lime- 
stone, have been worn into ridges and hollows 
which dash back the foaming waves, rendering 
the agitation still more terrible. 

The slope down which the river here preci- 
pitates itself for the extent of nearly a mile, is 
so very abrupt and imposing; that if the per- 
pendicular fall did not exist, these rapids alone 
w^ould be the grandest cataract in the universe. 

The great Fall of Niagara is in the form of a 
fish-hook. The eastern sheet of three hundred 
and eighty yards, with the fine precipice of 
Goat Island crowned with timber three hundred 
and thirty yards, make the shank; while the 
larger sheet, called the Horse-shoe, of seven 
hundred yards, may be represented by the 
curved portion of the hook. The heii^ht is a. 

H2 



100 

hundred and sixty feet; and the quantity of water 
dashed over each minute, has been computed at 
one million seven hundred and one thousand five 
hundred and sixty-two tons and a half. 

Some visitors prefer a station on the very 
edge of the abyss, so as to look down on the 
falling- water; others go further along the cliffs, 
so as to have a front view; but I think the ca- 
taract is seen to greatest advantage from the 
boat when crossing the river. The ferry is so 
close, and the water so agitated, as to have a 
friglitt'ul appearance ; but it is at that spot quite 
safe, while lower down the stream, even as far 
as Queenston, a boat would inevitably be dashed 
to pieces. 

The river is projected over the ledge in one 
unbroken sheet of water, and with such force 
as to leave a space of about fifty feet between 
it and the rock. Into this extraordinary cavern 
the guide has formed a path along the top of 
the slippery, shelving stones which have tumbled 
from the wall; and on it the visitor nnist walk, 
blinded by the spray, wetted to the skin, and 
rendered deaf by the horrible noise. 

If your breath does not entirely fail, it is pos- 
sible to advance thirty or forty yards along this 
singular footway; and almost as much more 
over a smooth ledge of rock, tcM-minating in an 
abyss of such depth as to render further pro- 



101 

gress impossible. Tlie light of the sun pene- 
trates dimly through the falling curtain of this 
unique grotto; the roof is masses of limestone, 
jutting out from the precipice, and which are 
continually worn away by the torrent, so that 
Mr. Forsyth, of the hotel, assures me the 
Horse-shoe Fall has receded about a hundred 
yards during the forty-two years he has resided 
near it. 

Perilous as a walk under the Fall appears to 
be, there is not in reality much danger. Ladies 
continually venture during the summer months ; 
and many persons go to catch the eels, which 
are found in great numbers sticking to the rock. 

In winter the scene, I am told, has its own 
peculiar beauties. Enormous pieces of ice float 
down from Lake Erie, and are dashed over with 
terrific violence ; the spray gets frozen and at- 
tached to the trees and rocks, resembling tur- 
retted castles, columns, every variety of shape ; 
wild fowl get entangled in the rapids during 
dark nights, and are picked up below, either 
killed or with broken wings; and it would seem 
there is a strong current of air as well as water 
at the brink of the cataract, for birds flying 
near it are often seen to fall as if powerless, re- 
covering the use of their wings before they 
reach the bottom. 



102 

The Eastern or American Fall is not so tre- 
mendously awful as the other ; but there is a 
wooden bridge to Goat Island just above it_, 
where you can stand in the centre of the rapids 
and see the water tumble towards you in billows 
of foam. Why it does not sweep the frail tim- 
ber on which you stand over the precipice, is 
almost incomprehensible; but itglides close under. 
The man who first constructed this bridge must 
have had nerves and talents rarely excelled. 

One or two rocky islets amid these rapids 
add greatly to the picturesque effect. Under 
the shady foliage of one is an apartment for 
billiards,, refreshments, and specimens of petri- 
factions ; on another is a water-wheel ; and 
under tlie lofty trees of Goat Island itself, a 
number of most agreeable walks have been laid 
out. 

I know it is the custom to talk of man sinking 
into insignificance beside the mighty works of 
nature ; but I beg to differ on this subject. If 
it is meant, that the works of man become insig- 
nificant by comparison, I agree to the truth; but 
I never think human nature so ennobled as when 
I view the wonders of that world w hich has been 
ffiven it as an inheritance. The Falls of Nia- 
gara and other sublime objects make me more 
feelingly alive to the power and goodness of 



103 

the Supreme Being-, but certainly do not cause 
me to repine at the natural advantages of my 
species. 

A military road is now being formed along 
the Canadian banks of the river ; which it' ever 
finished, and the trees not too much cut away, 
will afford perhaps the most interesting drive in 
the known world. Far below the Falls the tor- 
rent is pent up into narrow limits by lofty woody 
precipices, so that it rages with a long conti- 
nuance of rapids, eddies, &c. hollowing out in one 
place a deep recess, called from its boiling vortex, 
'' the Devil's Whirlpool." Not far from this hotel 
is a remarkable sulphur spring, which on being 
confined in a tub, and a candle applied, the vapour 
will burn like gas : there is another at the foot 
of the cataract, but only lately discovered. Seven 
miles westward of hence, the Welland Canal is 
now being excavated : it will be thirty-five miles 
long, is to carry vessels drawing eight feet 
water, and must rise three hundred and fifty or 
three hundred and sixty feet between the Lakes 
Ontario and Erie. In the same direction the 
present governor of Upper Canada has a house 
and grounds much in the English cottage style; 
and from which is an extensive prospect to the 
northward, over woody flats and the far-spread- 
ing lake. 
I was conducted to the highest part of the 



101 

small hills, which continue from Queenston to 
where a tmnulns had been found some years 
back full of human skeletons; and I saw many 
bones, but could not trace any remains of a ditch 
or rampart. A much larg-er pile of skeletons 
has been cut through in laying out the streets 
of Columbus Town in Ohio ; and others are re- 
ported to exist along the banks of the Ohio and 
Mississippi, near those ancient entrenchments I 
formerly mentioned. 

Some hisist they arc the remains of a civiUzed 
people, exterminated by Indian hordes from 
Asia who fled thence at the time of the Maho- 
metan conquests ; others consider they belonged 
to Prince Madoc and his Welsh followers in the 
twelfth century; many ingenious disquisitions are 
also to be found in Governor Clhiton's Treatise 
on American Antiquities : but I believe the only 
well-authenticated historical facts on which all 
these pretty superstructures have been raised, are 
the existence of pyramids in Mexico, and the re- 
fusal of Montezuma and some of his chiefs to 
resist Cortez, because he had come from the 
land of their forefathers. 

What a pity it is, some expert craniologist 
does not cross the Atlantic to inspect the skulls ! 
for he could doubtless tell us, whether their 
possessors had been red, white, black, or tawny 
men, and so clear up the mystery. 



105 

111 the vicinity of the Falls of Niagara are 
likewise the fields of battle of Chippewa, Lundy 
Lane, and other sanguinary contests in 1814; 
at all of which it would seem much animosity 
was shown, and the drubbing tolerably equally 
divided. 

So little was it anticipated the American go- 
vernment would push matters to extremity, that 
when the war broke out, only one British bat- 
talion was stationed in the extensive district of 
Upper Canada ; but General Brock was uni- 
versally beloved, and when he called on the 
young men to come and defend the frontier, 
they flocked with spirit to his standard. That 
gallant officer was killed in a skirmish, much la- 
mented by both parties ; and a handsome column 
has been erected to his memory on Queenston 
heights, near the spot where he fell. 

As reinforcements arrived, villages were burnt, 
first on one side of the river, then on the other, 
each army declaring' they only did it in retaliation; 
but what officers of either nation have assured 
me they thought equally disgi-aceful and iiietfi- 
cient, was the employment of Indians. 

A chief, named Tecumseh, renowned for his 
superior acquirements and influence, went even 
to the rocky mountains of the West, persuading 
the tribes, that now was the opportunity, by as- 
sisting their Great Red Father, to exterminate 



106 

those who wrong-fully held possession of their 
forests and hunting-grounds. Nearly six thousand 
warriors were thus induced, I hear, to follow him 
to the scene of warfare ; and an English officer 
of rank declared to me, that they were one con- 
stant source of uneasiness and annoyance, by 
their habits of insubordination, drunkenness, and 
contemptuous rejection of rations on the most 
frivolous pretexts. 

The Americans on their side brought up In- 
dians from the south ; and a body far more for- 
midable and equally ferocious, the back-woods- 
men with their rifles. 

Tecumseh's troops were almost annihilated, 
through the obstinacy of a British commander, 
who insisted on their fighting in an open space, 
instead of availing themselves, as accustomed, 
of the thickets and trees. The chief himself 
was shot down after displaying much bravery; 
and an American told me, the flesh was cut into 
strips from the body almost before life was ex- 
tinct, and carried off as trophies of tlie event. 
^' But," continued the narrator, "^ those back- 
woodsmen are worse than the savages they hunt 
and murder ; they have nothing of the true 
Yankee breed in them; they are, in short, blood- 
thirsty Irish." So you see, poor Pat gets accused, 
let hhn mix with what nation lie mav. 

Lord Cliatluun's famous speech against the 



107 

employment of Indians, is said to have made his 
hearers shudder at the possibility of atrocities, 
which in those days could only be very limited 
in extent; but now that the United States contain 
a population of twelve millions, and women with 
children are as numerous hundreds of miles in 
the interior as they then were around Boston or 
Philadelphia, what man would willingly load his 
conscience with such a reflection, as that of 
having been accessary to letting the savages 



loose. 



The Indian's glory consists in killing as many 
as possible without injury to himself; therefore, 
he naturally seeks the scalps of women and chil- 
dren in preference to those of men, because the 
latter may prove more powerful or more for- 
tunate than himself in the encounter. 

Yours sincerely, &c. 



108 



LETTER VIII. 



NIAGARA TOWN— YORK— LAKE ONTARIO— KINGSTON — RAPIDS 
OF ST. LAWRENCE — ERROR IN FIXING BOUNDARIES — CAUSES 
OF DISCONTENT IN UPPER CANADA — MONTREAL — RIVER 
RICHELIEU— FRENCH CANADIANS— CONSTITUTION OF CANADA. 



St. John's Vdlage, Lower Canada, 
June 28, 1827. 
DEAR ■ — , 

The tract on the Niaofara river beino" one of the 
oldest settlements in Upper Canada^ has a large 
strip of land in excellent cultivation and g-ood 
orchards ; but is without any signs of recent im- 
provement: no acres lately cleared of wood, 
with the stumps sticking- up to show progressive 
industry, are there seen ; the houses are usually 
old, unpainted, wooden ones, and the furniture 
neither so good or convenient as in the opposite 
state. 

On the ruins of Fort George, a town of 1200 
inhabitants has been entirely built since the last 
war; it is called Niagara, is well hiid out with 
wide unpaved streets, and the houses being new 
and painted white, ha\e a cheerful, neat appear- 
ance. It contains several good inns, and till the 
troops were removed was very thriving, as no 



109 

less a sum than 4000/. per month was paid out 
by the commissariat department alone. At pre- 
sent I understood the chief employment to be, 
a contraband trade in tea and some other ar- 
ticles, which are cheaper in Canada than the 
United States. The gardens, orchards, &c. were 
all destroyed when Fort George was taken. 

On the opposite side of the river, on a small 
peninsula jutting into the lake, is the old French 
Fort of Niagara ; in which the strong stone house 
with a high i)eaked roof, and some other build- 
ings, have rather a striking effect. It is now 
abandoned as a fortress, and the soldiers with- 
drawn to Washington ; for I believe the repub- 
lican government keeps up a small standing 
army of 6000 men. 

A steam-boat runs daily from Niagara town 
to the seat of government at York, a distance of 
thirty-six miles across the lake ; and returns at 
night. This latter place is low and unhealthy, 
but some new military roads have been made 
from it to Fort Maidon at the western end of 
Lake Erie, and other important points, so as to 
keep open the comnmiiication between the set- 
tlements. 

Other boats run to Kingston at the north-east 
end of Ontario, and besides passengers carry 
great quantities of flour secured in barrels. This 
lake is a hundred and eighty miles by forty. 



110 

and in one part seventy broad ; the depth is ge- 
nerally five hundred feet, the water quite clear 
and well tasted^ with a great variety of fine fish. 
It is subject to most -tremendous storms, when 
the quickness with which the waves follow each 
other, causes vessels to labour heavily and run 
much danger : in winter it is never quite frozen 
over. 

That portion of Canada which forms its north- 
ern shore appeared to be of a poor, sandy soil, 
abounding in fir and cedar trees, and scarcely 
with any houses or cleared spaces. Two or 
three woody islands are found in its waters, but 
I believe very few shoals or rocks, and no cur- 
rent or tide is visible, though after the melting 
of the snow its surface rises considerably. 

Kingston is in a very pleasing situation on a 
small hill sloping from a creek, and conunands 
an extensive prospect. Its streets are straight 
and wide, though not paved; it has 4000 people, 
and some of its houses are built of brick or 
stone. On the opposite side of the creek is the 
roval dock-yard, with neat ranges of ])uildings 
lor the shipwrights and workmen, a good resi- 
dence for the connnissioner, barracks, and some 
strong batteries and forts. 

One one-hundred-and-ten-gun ship, two se- 
venty-fours, a frigate, and some other vessels, 
left agreeable to the terms of the late treaty, are 



Ill 

fast decaying; as is a liimdred-and-twenty-gun 
ship, and several smaller ones in the rival and 
opposite dock-yard of Sacket's Harbour. The 
Americans do not keep up any establishment 
there whatever. 

Soon after quitting Kingston^ the St. Lawrence 
begins to run rather rapidly between the beau- 
tiful-looking granite islets which rise above its 
surface in every direction. The whole scene is 
highly picturesque^ on account of the wa\dng fo- 
liage which commonly shades the rocks ; and it 
is called the passage of the Thousand Islands, 
though their number amounts to one thousand 
seven hundred. 

Cultivation did not seem to have made much 
progress on either side the St. Lawrence, until 
the steam-boat arrived at the thriving little town 
of Prescot, where all goods are landed, and put 
on board flat-bottomed boats. The neat town 
of Ogdensburg is on the New York side of the 
river ; which is there one mile and a half wide, 
rapid, and often tempestuous. 

The banks of the St. Lawrence are thirty or 
forty feet above the stream ; and along the Ca- 
nadian side, a good road runs for fifty miles to 
the village of Cornwall, through a well culti- 
vated slip of land, from which, perhaps, after all, 
the rapids can be seen to greatest advantage. 
But I was determined to try some of them in an 



112 

open boat^ and soon found myself past those 
called the Gallop, which are short and not much 
agitated. 

The next rapid was two miles in length, and 
mucli more boisterous ; but the third, named 
^' Longue Saut," is by far the grandest and most 
dangerous. 

The bed of tlie river is there not only much 
contracted, but divided by an island into two 
channels, tlu'ough which the water pours on a 
steep descent for nine miles ; winding among 
rocks and round ai^rupt turnings, with whirl- 
pools, and eddies, and waves dashing against 
each otiier from every direction. 

The boat I was in took just half an hour in 
shooting down the distance ; but I was assured 
that 'Moatteaux'' heavily laden would glide tlie 
nine miles in fifteen or twenty minutes. The 
commencement of that rapid is bad; but the 
worst spot is where the Northern or Lost Chan- 
nel unites with the other near the bottom, ior 
there the waves continually break over tlie boat 
and half fill it with water. 

This excursion on the St. Lawrence, in addi- 
tion to the novel, and somewhat alarming appear- 
ance of the rapids, is rendered delightful by the 
green-sward and park-like scenery often witnessed 
on its banks ; and if the water is tolerably high, 
there is no dangf-er of an accident with a steady 



113 

pilot, who knows tlie deepest channel. The 
southern or American side of the country does 
not seem to be much settled yet ; and some of 
the headlands in that territory were really beau- 
tiful. 

Cornwall is a neat and thriving- villag-e, with a 
much better inn than at Prescot, and a steam- 
boat which navigates lake St. Francis, a part of 
the river so called from its being spread over a 
width of seven miles, and diversified with several 
woody islands. The shores on each side are 
low, the Glengarry settlement extending about 
thirty miles along the northern, and the Indian 
village St. Regis, which is the boundary of the 
United States, being to the south, with the moun- 
tains of Lake Champlain appearing in the far 
distance over it. 

On landing at the village of " Coteau de Lac," 
I was in Lower Canada -, and will therefore now 
give you such particulars concerning the state of 
the upper province, as I have been able to learn 
from apparently good authority; always pre- 
mising, that a traveller is generally led into many 
errors by contradictory and prejudiced informa- 
tion. 

Upper Canada is supposed at this moment to 
contain 180,000 people, of which more than one 
half are emigrants from the United States, many 

I 



114 

of whom came in witli their parents as early as 
General Simcoe's proclamation at the end of the 
revolutionary war. Among the Avhole of these 
much dissatisfaction prevails,, on account of some 
late resolutions of the Legislature respecting 
oaths of allegiance^ oaths of abjuration of other 
governments, and deeds of naturalization. 

The first they declare they have already taken 
repeatedly, particularly on three occasions during 
the last war, but do not care if they take it again. 
The second oath they object to, because many 
hold lands in the United States, which they fear 
to loose, and because Englishmen are allowed 
to hold property all the world over, without 
their government interfering: but to be called 
on to admit themselves aliens is the great griev- 
ance. They assert, some limitation ought to 
be made ; such, for instance, as including those 
only who have entered Canada since the con- 
clusion of the late war ; for it is absurd, that 
those who have fought and bled in defence of 
the frontier, who have received connnissions, aud 
now hold pensions for wounds, or as half pay, 
should all at once be told they do not belong to 
the country. 

They represent it as a trick of the present 
members of the House of Assembly, who by 
ilius getting temporary possession of their free- 



115 

holds^ will deprive great numbers of the right 
of voting at the approaching election,, and so 
ensure their own return. 

Another class of the inhabitants deeply resent 
some former attempts to provide for a national 
church by tithes, and fear bills of a similar 
nature may be again brought forward : they also 
want to know how the money paid by settlers 
as fees is appropriated ; viz. twenty-seven dol- 
lars for every deed of one hundred acres, se- 
venty-five dollars for two hundred acres, and so 
in proportion ; and affirm positively, that the 
present regulations respecting grants of land 
occasion much fraud, and great detriment to 
the colony. 

I should imagine the greatest evil to be, the 
total separation which I hear exists between 
the various people who compose the scanty po- 
pulation. Thus the Americans, Scotch, English, 
and some Dutch and Germans have no other 
interest in common than thwarting each other 
as much as possible. 

Two Pennsylvanian farmers who have been 
travelling through the Avestern countries appa- 
rently on a mission of inspection, assured me 
that a finer tract of land could not be found in 
all America than that part of Upper Canada, 
which extends along the northern shore of Lake 
Erie ; but that in the one or two comfortable 

I 2 



116 

villages they found there, the occupiers seemed 
quite satisfied with what they then had, without 
any attempts being' made at improvement. 

A Canadian Land Company has lately been 
formed in Great Britain, but I believe sufficient 
time has not yet elapsed to judge of the progress 
it is likely to make, or whether the terms will 
be more favourable than tliose of the Holland 
Company in the state of New York. A Scotch 
gentleman is the resident agent. 

1 must not omit renrarking on the extraordinary 
oversight which the British conmiissioners ap- 
pointed to fix the boundary line of the two nations, 
have committed on the St. Lawrence. By hav- 
ing ceded the majority of islands below Prescot, 
the United States Government has the means 
of erecting batteries on both sides the oidy na- 
vigable channel ; and in other places, the lueadth 
of the river has been so equally divided, and the 
depth of water so little considered, that scarcely 
six inches draught can float along the British half. 

The American commissioners knew personally 
the localities and navigation of the river ; and the 
advantage they gained is not of such trivial im- 
portance as may at first appear ; for alreadv the 
republicans talk of the injnstice of British subjects 
navigating their side of the St. Lawrence, unless 
a i'ree passage is allowed to the citizens of the 
United States, as far as Montreal,[Quebcc, and 



117 : 

the Ocean. This is one strong- reason why 
canals are now being cut,, or recommended in 
the Canadas, to avoid all parts impeded by 
rapids, or within the territory of New York. 

From " Couteau de Lac" to the village and 
rapids of Cedars, the road passes along a well- 
cultivated country, where the language spoken 
is a French patois ; and by a contented healthy- 
looking peasantry, who are evidently resolved to 
leave things in the same state as their fathers 
left them. At the foot of the Cascade Rapids, the 
great river Ottawa joins its muddy stream to the 
transparent waters of the St. Lawrence ; but 
they flow some distance before mingling together. 

Another steam-boat stationed at that pointy 
conveys travellers to the village and rapids of 
^' La Chine," seven miles from Montreal, having 
run over a part of the river called Lake '' St. Lewis.' 

Montreal is situated below all the rapids which 
impede the navigation of the St. Lawrence ; and 
amid a rich and beautiful scene of cultivation, 
which extends to a distance unusual in America, 
and proves it to be an old established settlement. 
The city has narrow streets stretching a consi- 
derable distance along the river, but neither well 
cleaned nor well paved; the houses are generally 
small, but of stone, and covered with tin roofs, 
to prevent accidents by fire, which reflects the 
sun's rays in a most painful manner. 



118 

To the northward of the town is a high hill ; 
and several handsome country houses are scat- 
tered about in the vicinity. The churches and 
monasteries are not remarkable for architecture ; 
but a fine cathedral is now being built by the 
catholics to supersede the ancient one. 

The court-house and jail are substantial build- 
ings, with a good parade for the garrison behind 
the latter ; a monument to Nelson, surmounted 
by his statue, is in tolerable taste ; and there is 
also a theatre, a circus, and some barracks. The 
markets are abundant, and many of the shops 
well supplied with goods, arranged with consi- 
derable taste. The hotels are excellent. 

I know no city where a more convenient or 
handsome quay might be constructed, as a suffi- 
cient space has been left along the St. Lawrence, 
which is there two miles across ; but the road at 
present is little better than a mass of filth, from 
one end to the other ; in short, the town not 
being incoj'porated, has no competent authorities; 
and as the French inhabitants resolutely oppose 
all innovations or injprovements, it has not made 
that progress which its wealth and population of 
25,000 residents would seem to warrant. 

A small island just below Montreal, and ap- 
propriated to the ordnance department, is de- 
lightfully shaded with trees, and laid out in walks, 
drives, &.c. That charming spot used, until very 



119 

recently, to be the favourite resort of all such 
respectable inhabitants as could hire a boat ; but 
the major commanding- has now offended the 
whole neighbourhood, by restricting- the walk to 
those who may obtain his permission. It can 
scarcely be called fortified, as there are only two 
breastworks towards the river. 

Among other novelties an order has lately 
arrived from the Master-General of the ordnance 
in London, forbidding officers of the engineers 
from complying with any requisitions of the local 
government, respecting improvements, maps^ 
surveys, &c. unless they judge their time and 
duties will not be too much interfered with. This 
is giving a most comfortable degree of latitude 
to the corps, and I should imagine is an infringe- 
ment on the powers vested in the king's repre- 
sentative in Canada. 

A steam-boat runs down to Quebec in twenty- 
four hours, and ])ack in thirty-six ; but you have 
so often read accounts of that city, its beautiful 
situation, fortifications, and neighbouring falls of 
Montmorenci and Chaudier, that I can have no 
excuse for writing on the subject. 

A class of men, styled *^Soyageurs," engaged 
in the lumber or timber trade, deserve particular 
notice ; because a certain degree of eclat has 
long been attached to the performance of one or 
more of those dangerous voyages ; so that few 



120 

young Canadians of the lower ranks settle in life 
before they can boast of the perils they have 
thus encountered. 

By drinking large quantities of spirits they 
make their bodies almost callous to the snow, 
frost, water, and scorching heat of these climates ; 
but their constitutions are undermined, and it is 
rare for one to arrive at the age of fifty : the oc- 
cupation behig one routine of fatigue, idleness, 
privations, debauchery, and lawlessness. 

What these men will undergo as long as they 
have hope is almost incredible ; but with the 
French character of great bravery and sudden 
panics, they quickly despond when entangled in 
the rapids, and instead of pulling at the oar with 
vigour, empty the brandy-bottles : so also, if 
threatened with famine and want of provisions, 
all authority and obedience is at an end, and they 
devour or waste what little is left. 

Few rafts arrive at Quebec in an uninjured 
state, and a great many are totally destroyed ; 
so that taking all these things into consideration, 
a Canadian gentleman I became acquainted Avith, 
who is much attached to his native province, in- 
sists that the lumber trade, instead of being ad- 
vantageous to the inhabitants, is the great cause 
why they make such little progress in modern 
arts and inventions. 

The large village " La Prairie" is nine miles 



121 

south of Montreal ; and the current runs so 
rapidly, that the steam-boat croi§ses slowly enough ; 
T was two hours making the passage. The level 
country from thence to the river Richelieu^ is 
entirely cleared and cultivated ; and also as far 
down as Fort Sorel. The village of Chamble is 
agreeably situated on a bay of the Richelieu, and 
at the foot of some dangerous rapids, which are 
the sole obstacle to the navigation of that river 
for the largest vessels, from the farthest pai'ts of 
Lake Champlain to the sea. Opposite the vil- 
lage is a large extent of cultivation, and some 
rocky isolated mountains of no great extent, but 
forming a fine background. 

An ancient square fortress, built by tlie French, 
with strong stone walls, is still existing at Cham- 
ble in tolerable repair, and has more the ap- 
pearance of a baronial castle than any buildhig 
T have seen in America. Not far from it are 
some cavalry barracks, occupied in 1814 by a 
British regiment of dragoons ; and a few miles 
beyond it is the village of St. John's, from whence 
the Champlain steam-boat takes its departure, 
and where I have found a comfortable inn. 

This is the limit of cultivation on this side ; as 
the British frontier post called " Isle aux Noix'' 
is only twelve miles further up the stream. 

The French Canadians seem a good humoured 
happy race ; are of the catholic religion ; obstinately 



122 

averse to any and every change ; and, I am told, 
very generally ignorant of reading and writing. 
Even the mode of dress does not appear to have 
undergone much alteration ; nor could it be 
wished that the girls, who have often fine dark 
eyes and pretty features, should discard their 
present large brimmed straw-hat, placed very 
backward on one side of their heads. 

In agriculture they use the old heavy plough ; 
of rotation in crops they are ignorant — sowing 
wheat year after year till the ground becomes 
unproductive, when they let it lie fallow; of 
manure they either do not know the use, or are 
too indolent to apply it ; and of turnips none are 
cultivated either here or in the United States, 
except in gardens. The Canadian horses are 
small and ill-looking, but hardy. 

The sledges driven in winter are so low and 
badly contrived, that the front pushes on the 
snow till the accumulation makes a great resist- 
ance ; when the exertions of the horses pull the 
machine over the heap, which it thus presses 
into a solid mass. So the Canadian roads, dur- 
ing frost, are compared to waves of two feet 
high, which have suddenly been congealed. 

A few winters ago, three sledges were made 
and driven about the streets of Montreal, to 
overcome, if possible, the prejudices of the 
people; one like those commonly used, a second 



123 

similar to the excellent ones of the United States, 
and a third endeavouring to^iite the two ex- 
tremes. 

On the market days the farmers gazed and 
admired ; acknowledged tlie advantage of having 
two smooth tracks like a rail-road, instead of 
the former jolting hillocks, and praised the in- 
vention. But on being desired to adopt the 
improved machine, Montreal was left without 
fire-wood or provisions, as nobody would come 
to the town except in the old way. 

Each of the Canadas has its upper and lower 
House of Assembly; the members of which are 
elected by the people^ and have great privileges, 
such as raising the monies necessary for local 
expenses, making laws, &c. which are laid before 
the governor, for his approval or rejection ; and 
the final appeal is to the ministry in London. 

Alarge annual sum has been expended hitherto 
by the British government in gifts and presents 
to the Indians, or rather in affording those sa- 
vages an opportunity of getting drunk for ten 
days or a fortnight. This, with the fortifications, 
garrisons, and various other items, has caused 
an outlay to the Mother Country, of above one 
million per annum. 

That they are fine provinces, capable of vast 
improvements, and may some day or other be- 
come important, I do not deny ; but why they 



124 

should at this moment be considered of so much 
value^ I really ci^ot imagine. As an outlet to 
our surplus population, they have as yet been of 
no benefit^ or wliy has not the number of their 
inhabitants increased in proportion^ or the marks 
of progressive industry become more apparent ? 
Particularly in Upper Canada_, w^hich possesses 
the more temperate climate, and perhaps on the 
whole the better soil. 

In that province I have heard a few persons 
talk wildly of forming a republic, independent of 
England and the United States ; whereas it is 
clear, that with their present trifling resources,, 
they must either be a colony of Britain, or a part 
of the Federation. In Lower Canada there exists 
an hereditary hatred to the people of the Union ; 
nor would those who by conmiercial intercourse 
have become acquainted with the severe colonial 
laws now enforced by France in her West India 
Islands, at all relish the idea of being ruled by 
that power. 

Some Canadian gentlemen once told me, they 
believed the surest way of putting an end to all 
the existing disputes and animosities would be 
for Great Britain to threaten a total abandonment 
of the two provinces, leaving them to their own 
resources and management. 

Of one thing I am very certain, that to send 
out emigrants to these countries, who have been 



125 

broug-ht up in the hot-bed factories of cotton or 
woollen ; give theui land anc^an axe_, and say, 
" there — cut avvay^ work, and Ijecome your own 
master and landlord/' must appear little better 
than cruel irony to those who have seen what an 
uncleared wilderness is. 

In many instances the poor creatures have 
dragged through that period when provisions and 
other assistance are allowed l)y government^ and 
then have taken the first opportunity of selling 
their allotment of ground to some richer neigh- 
bour, and abandon the country. 

Yours truly, &c. 



126 



LETTER IX. 

LAKE CHAMPLAIN — IRISH EMIGRANTS' — PLATTSBURG — SIR G, 
PREVOST — LAKE GEORGE — MASSACRE BY THE FRENCH IN 
1757— SARATOGA— REFLECTIONS— CLASS OF EMIGRANTS Who 
SUCCEED BEST. 

Saratoga, July 10, 1827. 
DEAR , 

The steam-boat in which I left St. John's, was 
neatly fitted up, and the charge of conveyance 
one hundred and fifty miles, with three well- 
supplied meals was twenty-five shillings, but 
the time occupied in running that distance was 
uselessly protracted to twenty-four hours. 

The river Richelieu is in general about half a 
mile wide, and the banks on both sides when 
near the frontiers are covered with thick woods. 
At the " Isle aux Noix " the British have a 
small dock-yard, and a strong square fort is 
being constructed. The position is excellent, 
as it completely commands the navigation ; but 
the soil is of so loose and swampy a nature, as 
scarcely to bear the weight of the ramparts, 
and I should fear it will prove an unhealthy 
aguisli post. 



127 

The line of demarcation between the two na- 
tions is the 45° of latitude, and at that point a 
strong stone fortress was erected by the Ame- 
ricans very recently, but being found a few 
yards within the British territory, is now aban- 
doned. 

We had with us as passengers on the fore- 
castle a great many poor Irish ; and I understood 
the boat was always crammed with them, on 
every voyage from Canada to the United States. 
They told me on being questioned, it was their 
intention to proceed to New York, and there 
petition the English Consul to ship them back 
to Europe. 

I suggested, that Montreal or Quebec, being 
British towns, would have answered their pur- 
pose better, and been nearer at hand ; but they 
did not like Canada, was the reply, so they got 
out of it as fast as possible. Some gentlemen 
on board suggested, that as most probably these 
people had been sent out at the government's 
expense, there was a very natural objection to 
sending them back again in the same manner, 
consequently, they went to a city where the 
fact could not be so easily ascertained. 

Whether this trick is often practised I of 
course cannot pretend to form an opinion ; but 
it in some measure accounts for so many Irish 
beggars being seen in the streets of Albany, 
and is worth while enquiring into. 



128 

Lake Champlain at its commencement is much 
broken by islands, some of large extent, others 
mere rocks_, but all of them covered with timber. 
The village bearing the same name is seen to 
the right, and the mountains of Vermont rising 
2000 feet, form a fine boundary to the upper 
end of the water. The bustling little town of 
Plattsburg is forty miles south of St. John's 
village, and was rendered remarkable in 1814 
by our vessels being defeated, and by Sir George 
Prevost fairly running away at the head of one 
thousand three hundred men ; or as an English 
colonel expresses himself, *^We were long 
enough in reaching Plattsburg, but we got back 
again in one-third of the time." 

In regard to the naval victory, an American 
officer who served there says, the contest was 
long doubtful, and even unfavourable to them at 
one time, owing to a brig having quitted her 
position near the Commodore : but a fortunate 
manoeuvre, and consequent sinking of a British 
vessel, gave such a turn to the affair as insured 
them success. " And then," continued lie, *' we 
had the unexpected satisfaction of seeing Ge- 
neral Prevost making a hasty retreat, and long 
puzzled ourselves witli conjectures, as to the 
cause of his so sudden change in resolutions." 

It would seem that Sir George's great failing 
was indecision and want of moral courage ; for 
as to personal bravery, his bitterest accusers 



129 

admit he was seldom excelled. One gentleman 
told me, that he had himself seen General Pre- 
vostatthe attack on Sacket's Harbour, when the 
landing' party began to waver, jump on the beach 

and cry, '^ Grenadiers of the regiment, form 

yourselves on me ! " then lead them to the charge^ 
and take possession of the place. After this gal- 
lant exploit however, his evil genius prevailed ; 
and looking for some minutes stedfastly at the 
surrounding forest, he ordered an immediate 
retreat. 

At the back of Plattsburg commences a long 
range of hills, running south, which abound in va- 
luable iron ore, and employ many people. There 
also, the Lake begins to expand into a surface 
seven or eight miles wide ; and the shores are not 
only delightfully undulating, but have a thriving 
appearance of progressive industry and cultiva- 
tion. Port Kent and other little hamlets line the 
western shore ; while the handsome town of Bur- 
lington adds beauty to the other, many of the 
houses being large, and the population almost 
3000. From thence the passage up the lake 
continually improves ; ' the mountains almost 
touch the water, only leaving at their base a 
succession of cultivated knolls and slopes, vary- 
ing in height from 100 to 300 feet. It was the 
most lovely scene I had witnessed on my tour. 

At Crown Point the French had a strong fort, 

K 



130 

and another at Ticonderoga ; where an outlet 
from Lake George aflfords the traveller an oppor- 
tunity, if he chooses, by going round some rapids 
of two miles, to sail over that beautiful sheet of 
water, and so pass to Saratoga ; instead of con- 
tinuing with the steam-boat up a deep creek to 
the village of Whitehall, and thence by the public 
coach or canal to the city of Albany. 

Lake George is the most celebrated in North 
America for its picturesque beauties. Its ex- 
treme length is thirty-six miles ; its width varies 
greatly, behig sometimes narrowed into a mere 
river, by the near approach of abrupt mountains 
and a long projecting headland, and then expand- 
ing into a surface of several miles, dotted with 
islands. The water is perfectly clea)*, and said 
to be often sixty fathoms deep. The fish are 
abundant, as by law no nets are allowed to be 
used ; and there are great numbers of green 
turtle, from three to thirty pounds in weight, 
whose flesh is excellent, but the shell too soft 
and thin for making combs or other similar 
purposes. 

It is a complete mountain lake, surrounded on 
every side by steeply rising hills of 800 or 1200 
feet in height, which are covered with pines and 
other wood for building and fuel. The soil in its 
vicinity is a poor sand, or rock, so that the farms 
are neither numerous or of mucli value ; and the 



131 

forest not only harbours a few panthers and 
wolves_, but is noted for rattle-snakes. 

I cannot compare Lake George to those of 
Cumberland and Westmoreland, in precipitous 
crags, deep glens of shady oaks and watered by 
a cascade, in parks, cultivation, or the towering- 
peaks of a mountainous outline ; but it is, never- 
theless, a lovely scene, which will aiford ample 
gratification to every visitor. 

The village of Caldwell, which is delightfully 
situated at the southern or upper end of the 
water, contains several inns, one of which is 
large and comfortable ; with a steam-boat plying 
daily, during the summer seasons, to Ticonde- 
roga and back again. I could pass a month or 
six weeks much more agreeably there, than in 
the fashionable town where I now am. 

On a small hill above Caldwell are the ruins 
of Fort George, built by the English as a frontier 
post, when that of William Henry, a few hundred 
yards to the westward, was destroyed by the 
French in 1757. This conquest was attended 
by one of the most disgraceful transactions of 
any nation on record ; and such was the horror 
excited, that notwithstanding the lapse of time, 
and various changes among the inhabitants, the 
following tradition is still kept up in the vicinity, 
as well as a strong hatred towards the French. 

The Marquis Montcalm, Governor of Canada, 

K 2 



132 

with 7000 French troops, and rather under 4000 
Indians and colonists, suddenly invested the in- 
trenchment called William Henry, before it was 
in a proper state for defence ; but the spirited 
commander, a Colonel Monroe, repulsed every 
assault during six days ; when, having burst his 
guns, expended his ammunition, and been twice 
refused assistance by General Webb, who was 
only fourteen miles oft' with a well-disciplined 
army of 6000 men, the fort was surrendered on 
condition of protection to the garrison, and a 
French escort to the nearest English post. 

By this agreement, nearly 2000 persons, sol- 
diers, peasants, women and children, were 
marched out unarmed ; but before they had pro- 
ceeded a quarter of a mile, an indiscriminate 
massacre, with circumstances of unprecedented 
barbarity, was commenced. Monroe rushed back 
to the Marquis, and upbraided his treachery, 
insisting that the escort ought to be comj)elled 
to interfere ; but Montcalm declared himself and 
troops were afraid the Indians might attack 
them also. 

After much expostulation and entreatv, with 
remarks on the French soldiers being twice as 
numerous as their savage allies, their general 
was absolutely shamed into exertions ; but it 
was almost too late, 1500 had already been 
scalped. 



133 

Montcalm, in 1759, died at the head of his 
troops, bravely defending- Quebec against Ge- 
neral Wolfe. But, after the above atrocious 
action, he was undeserving of so gallant a fate, 
and ought rather to have been hanged at the 
gate of that city. The American novelist, Mr. 
Cooper, has given an interesting and faithful 
account of the above massacre, with descrip- 
tions of the cowardly nature of Indian warfare, 
in his work called '' The Last of the Mohicans." 

It is said that General Webb was never pun- 
ished for his refusal to assist Colonel Monroe 
and his garrison, because the immense distance 
between the colonies and the mother country 
precluded the government from learning the 
truth. This and many similar instances are ad- 
duced, to show that the very best of men are 
unfit to rule over any country which is removed 
several thousand miles from them. 

The land between Lake George and Saratoga 
is generally sandy, and covered with pine forests; 
but it is broken into hill and dale, and a ridge of 
low mountains bounds the western prospect. At 
the large village of Glenn's Falls, on the Hud- 
son, that river has a very picturesque appear- 
ance, for its dark lime rocks are worn into various 
shapes and fissures, over which the water forms 
a highly beautiful cascade of forty feet. 

The existence of several ruinous-looking saw- 



134 

mills and a dam^ with an old wooden bridge,, and 
the want of trees^ have tended to destroy much 
of the romantic nature of this scene ; but it forms, 
with Baker's Falls, three miles lower down, where 
the Hudson rushes down a precipice of seventy- 
six feetj a most delightful morning's excursion 
from this place. 

To those who have time and inclination for 
rambles, tlie banks of the Hudson, for many 
leagues above Glenn's Falls, winding its devious 
way amid mountains and opposing rocks, will 
atford a continual variety of solitary and charm- 
ing scenes. The river continues eighty or a 
hundred yards wide, a very long distance, with 
occasional cascades and rapid descents ; and, 
if my hiformation is correct, the best shooting 
country in the State of New York is to be foimd 
among the sources of that great stream. 

Saratoga has become, within the last ten years, 
the Cheltenham or Buxton of the United States, 
on account of a strongly efiervescing saline 
spring, the waters of which are by no means 
unpleasant to drink, and are thought highly sa- 
lutary from the cpiantity of fixed air they contain. 

The spot was disclosed to the governor by an 
Indian, as much as seventy years ago, and the 
spring then used was resyerved for public accom- 
modation, when the land was granted to set- 
tlers ; but the superior quality of the newer-found 



135 

sources, particularly that called Congress Water, 
has thrown the ancient one into disrepute, and 
none drink at it, except those who do not wish 
to pay for the privilege. 

Saratoga is laid out in one long wide street, 
which has a most cheerful appearance ; for 
though all the houses, with one single excep- 
tion, are built of wood, yet, being neatly painted, 
and having columns and verandas, overgrown 
with woodbine, clematis, &c., the whole town is 
pleasing and gay. Besides several dozen board- 
ing and lodging-houses, inns, &c., there are three 
hotels on the most extensive scale, each having 
accommodation for nearly three hundred visitors, 
in addition to baths and billiard tables. The 
furniture and fitting up is handsome, the tables 
well supplied, and wines, with all other luxnries, 
may be had on calling for. 

The proprietors of these hotels take it by turns 
to give nightly balls, with good bands of music 
stationed in the gardens ; and they enforce such 
excellent regulations, by turning any person out 
of the three houses, who misconducts himself in 
either, that, although the company consists of 
all classes, very few quarrels take place. 

The season this year is uncommonly backward, 
by reason of the cold weather in May, and there- 
fore I have not seen Saratoga in all its glory of 
crowds and fashion ; which I lament exceedingly. 



13G 

because families from every part of the Union, 
even from New Orleans, three thousand miles 
off, are said to frequent its healing waters. 

The roads about this neighbourhood are sandy, 
the country poor but undulating ; and among 
the many agreeable rides, is that to the charm- 
ing little lake of Saratoga, where an unexpected 
scene of rich farms and pastoral beauty is dis- 
played. A few miles further, is the neat village 
of Ballston, with some large handsome hotels for 
visitors to the sprhigs of that place. The soil 
about there is richer, and has evidently been 
much longer under cultivation ; but the houses 
are often unpainted, and have not that clean, 
comfortable appearance of the newer settle- 
ments to the west. One reason given me was, 
that the occupiers were generally tenants in- 
stead of owners, the farms in that quarter being 
very extensive. The hire of a labourer, they told 
me, was fifteen shillings a-week, besides meals. 

Another excursion, and very naturally a fa- 
vourite one with the American public, is to the 
remains of Fort Edward, and thence to Bemiss 
Heights, where, on October 17, 1777, General 
Burgoyne and a British army of 6000 men, were 
compelled to surrender to General Gates. A 
road from thence runs along the side of the 
Hudson to Waterford, a fine village, and so on 
to the Cohoes Falls, and Albany. 



137 

I much fear this will be the last letter I shall 
be able to send you from America^ at least as 
far as regards the continuance of my tour, for 
circumstances seem likely to prevent my excur- 
sion from Albany to Boston, and thence through 
Hartford to New York. 

I regret this disappointment the more, because 
I am assured the towns and scenery, in both 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, are well worth 
a visit ; and that in the villages, I should often 
observe the two or three shady trees planted on 
the parish green, as used so commonly to be the 
case in England before the Inclosure Act. 

Allow me to fill up this paper by indulging in 
a few reflections, which, after the many hundred 
miles I have passed over, and the gratification 
and kindness I have experienced, may, I think_, 
be deemed pardonable, if not absoluteh called 
for. 

In the United States, the best feelinofs of the 
heart and the understanding are constantly called 
into play, by the sight of a well-fed, well-clothed, 
industrious people, without beggary, or fears of 
having too large a family ; and never did I feel 
so proud of being an Englishman, as while 
travelling through the vast territories of this 
republic. 

True, it is no longer a part of the British em- 
pire ; but it was an English colony, and it is, in 



138 

language^ manners, dress, customs, laws, almost 
government, a second England. No similar ex- 
ample exists in history. Where are the colonies 
of the Egyptians and Phoenicians, of Greece and 
of Rome ? 

Modern nations may, perhaps, dispute as to 
which language and code of laws most nearly 
resemble those of the ancients. But in what part 
of the world do those people still exist ? Not in 
Greece ; not in Italy ; for, even in language, the 
Spanish more nearly approaches the pure Latin 
than the present dialects of either Rome or 
Tuscany. 

If Britain shall follow the law of nations, and, 
like all other powerftd dominions, shall sink into 
insignificance and ruin, she will still live in a por- 
tion of America as large as half Europe. Pro- 
bably she will appear also in the vast settlements 
of New Holland, which Avill, no doubt, likewise 
free themselves from the tutelage of a govern- 
ment situated on the other side of the globe. 

And does the mother country really lose, by 
her colonies becoming sufficiently rich and pow- 
erful to declare themselves iiidepeudent? I 
believe such ideas are becoming very generally 
exploded ! Her pride is wounded, her power 
is somewhat humiliated ; and human nature will 
not tolerate such injuries witliout a struefirle. 
But when time has obliterated those causes of 



139 

animosity, who is it that loses by the change ? 
Those only who have enjoyed the patronage of 
making governors, commandants, judges, and the 
nnmerous placemen of a colonial government. 

It is said that not a single British colony pays 
its expenses ! Now let any man look back to 
what was tlie annnal expenditure in this country, 
and call to mind the necessary increase which 
must have taken place, had we preserved the 
territory ; and I think he will acknowledge, that 
by paying their own fleets and armies and go- 
vernment, and trading with our ports to the 
amount of many millions a-year, these worthy 
citizens have conferred a most important benefit 
on England. 

In regard to liberty of person and security of 
property, these republicans are not one jot 
better off than ourselves in Britain : each change 
of President creates great civil dissensions, 
which must increase in proportion to the number 
of w^ealthy and powerful candidates ; an evil 
avoided by onr having an hereditary dynasty. 
But what seems strange, is the complaint of 
many here, that the election by ballot is found 
to be quite as open to brikery and corruption 
as our '^ viva voce" system. 

Three great advantages the inhabitants of the 
Union do certainly enjoy over us; they have no 
excise, no tithes, and no game laws. All car- 



140 

penters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, mechanics, 
labourers, in short all who g-et a livelihood by the 
work of their ow n hands (except sedentary manu- 
facturers) will bring up a large family here with 
more facility and comfort than in England ; but 
farmers who have been renting to the amount 
of 150/. or 200/. a-year, and all those who have 
been more accustomed to superintend and di- 
rect others than work themselves, will find their 
comforts very seriously lessened by emigration. 

1 have met with two or three men grumbling — 
discontented and eager to get back ; because, in- 
stead of being able to mount their hacks, and ride 
about their fields to see all was right, as they used 
to do when leaseholders in England, they must 
now strip off their coats, and join in the work of 
the few labourers they have been lucky enough 
to hire, or else not a spade or a pitchfork will 
be moved. 

" Those cursed fellows,'^ continued the com- 
plainants, " call themselves helpers — not ser- 
vants ; and devilish little they do help us, for 
we have to load most of our carts ourselves." 

With respect to the means this country pos- 
sesses, of providing during any long period for 
the rapidly-increasing population which is pour- 
ing in from all sides, a gentleman who has been 
surveying a line of road to the Pacific, informs 
me that the general character of the land be- 



141 

yond the Missouri is sterile ; and lie does not 
think the central parts of the Continent can ever 
be thickly peopled: but beyond the great west- 
ern mountains a fruitful tract exists^ A^hi(•h he 
supposes will be quickly overspread by the flou- 
rishing settlements on Columbia river. 

The great State of New York has now about 
two millions of inhabitants,, but could easily 
maintain five or six times that number; other 
states may possibly be as productive, and of 
equal territory ; but after all^ it is idle perhaps 
to write on a subject so dependent on political 
events ; for so various^ and in many cases oppo- 
site, are the interests of the different members of 
this Federation, that the Union hangs by a mere 
thread ; and I firmly believe it is the fear of their 
slaves alone which has prevented the Southern 
States from separating themselves before this. 

With the sincere wish that the wide waters of 
the Atlantic may prove a sufficient barrier be- 
tween the jealousies of the two kindred nations, 

I remain. 

Yours very truly, ^c. 



THE END. 



JAMES WHITING, PRINTUn, BBAUFORT HOUSK, STRAND, 



